Making a Missouri Parenting Plan

A parenting plan is the most important document in a custody situation. It outlines all of the necessary information about how the parents will continue to care for the child after a separation or divorce. It is essential that parents take time to create a detailed and thorough plan that centers around the child's best interests. Here are some common definitions parents need to know to make an effective Missouri parenting plan:

• Legal custody – This is defined as the parents' responsibility to make decisions regarding their child. This includes decisions about child care, religious upbringing, education and medical and dental care. When the child gets older, these include decisions about working part-time, driving, extracurricular activities and school functions.

  • In a sole legal custody situation, one parent is responsible for making decisions on behalf of the child.

  • In a joint legal custody situation, parents share the responsibility of making decisions for the child. Those decisions can be divided between them or they can consult each other about all decisions.

• Physical custody – This is defined as actual physical time the parents have with the child. Parents must decide where their child will reside during the week, on weekends, during holidays and on vacations and for special events.

  • In a sole physical custody situation, one parent has primary care of the child and the other parent has visitation.

  • In a joint physical custody situation, both parents care for the child for substantial periods of time. This does not mean the time in divided in half equally.

A Missouri parenting plan needs to include the type of physical and legal custody chosen by the parents, a visitation and custody schedule, a schedule for holidays and vacations, provisions that help make the plan more effective and any additional information that would help the situation work better.

In Missouri, parents are required to file a parenting plan with the court. They can file a plan together or submit plans individually. The court will then use the parenting plan(s) to make a final agreement for custody. Parenting plans in Missouri must include a complete visitation and custody schedule including vacation and holiday schedules, how legal custody is divided, a way to resolve disputes and how the parents will divide the child's expenses.

Work together as much as possible to create a parenting plan in Missouri that most benefits the child.