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 Child Custody

In Missouri, the Courts have traditionally favored joint custody arrangements whenver possible to help ensure both parents have a chance to be actively involved in their child's life.  To move even further toward equality, a new custody law was recently approved by Missouri legislators that creates a standard of equal parenting time and modifies the factors courts are mandated to consider when determining child custody rulings. This legislation was signed by Governor Parson in July 6, 2023, making 50/50 custody the default in child custody matters.  Under the new law, there is a "rebuttable presumption" that an award of equal, or nearly equal, parenting time is in the best interests of the child.  In order to "rebut" or overcome this presumption, one party must present a case such that the "preponderance of the evidence" suggests equal parenting time is not in the best interests of the child(ren.)

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When it comes to child custody there are two types in Missouri: Legal Custody & Physical Custody​​

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Legal Custody

Legal custody dictates the rights of the each parent to make decisions regarding, among other issues, the education, health care, and additional aspects of the upbringing of the children. This includes:

  • The choice/change of school, college, camp, or certain summer activities

  • Tutoring, and extracurricular activities such as music, sports, art, dance, and other cultural lessons

  • Medical, dental, psychological or psychiatric treatment, and doctors, and surgeons

  • All other material decisions affecting the health, education, and welfare of the children

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Legal Custody may be:  Joint Legal Custody or Sole Legal Custody

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Joint legal custody:  each parent shares in the decision

 making rights, and will decide the following together:

  • Educational instruction (including choice of school)

  • Religious participation

  • Medical and dental

  • Discipline

  • Child care providers

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Sole legal custody:  just one parent is awarded legal

custody, and they can make these decisions on their own.

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Physical Custody

Physical custody is the right of the parents to have actual physical parenting time with the children. Like legal custody, physical custody may be joint or sole. 

 

Joint physical custody:  Each parent has physical parenting time with the children and share time in accordance with a written schedule ("the parenting plan”).  With joint physical custody a schedule is created dictating parenting time, where each parent will have specific times and days with the children, which generally include a residential schedule, a schedule for holidays, summertime, transportation, and vacations. Joint custody does not mandate that each parent will be with the children for an equal amount of time, it only means that both parents have physical time with the children. Many factors are considered when developing the schedule, and it can vary with every case. 

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Sole physical custody:  the child will reside one parent, and the other parent will have limited or no parenting time with the children. 

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Parenting Plan

A parenting plan is a specific written plan regarding legal custody which details how the decision-making rights and responsibilities will be shared between the parties including the following:

  1. Educational decisions and methods of communicating information from the school to both parties

  2. Medical, dental and health care decisions including how health care providers will be selected and a method of communicating medical conditions of the child and how emergency care will be handled

  3. Extracurricular activities, including a method for determining which activities the child will participate in when those activities involve time during which each party is the custodian

  4. Child care providers, including how such providers will be selected

  5. Communication procedures including access to telephone numbers as appropriate

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At any stage of the divorce proceeding, the parents may enter into a written parenting plan, which will detail the terms of child custody, child support, and the visitation arrangement. However, before approving such an arrangement, the court must consider these factors.

A typical parenting plan will provide one parent having primary custody and the other parent will have visitation every other weekend, one or two evenings during the week, alternating holidays, and spring and summer vacations. Note however that each family is different, and each plan should be specifically tailored and crafted to the family’s particular situation, and should serve the child’s best interest.

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Advantages of a Court Ordered Parenting Plan

A parenting plan ordered by the court will help parents co-parent if they are unmarried or after they have separated or divorced. The plan will give the parents a written guideline of what each parent’s responsibilities are and what obligations that they have to their children. It will establish child support and will give them a court ordered document to rely on should disputes arise. The plan will also prohibit one parent from relocating the child to another residence without the specific consent of the other parent or an order from the court.

 

                                                                  Contents of the Parenting Plan

 The following items are required by Missouri law to be included in a parenting plan. Specific written schedule

 detailing the custody, visitation and residential time for each child with each party, including: 

 1. Major holidays: New Year's Eve & Day, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve & Day.

 2. School holidays for school-aged children.

 3. The child's birthday, Mother's Day and Father's Day.

 4. Weekday and weekend schedules and for school-aged children how the winter, spring, summer and other vacations

  from school will be spent. 

 5. The times and places for transfer of the child between the parties in connection with the residential schedule. 

 6.  A plan for sharing transportation duties associated with the residential schedule. 

  7.  Appropriate times for telephone access. 

  8. Suggested procedures for notifying the other party when a party requests a temporary variation from the residential schedule. 

  9.  Any suggested restrictions or limitations on access to a party and the reasons such restrictions are requested

                                                                                   

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