Visitation: When the parent who does not have the children more than half of the time has visitation with the children. Generally, it helps the parents and children to have detailed visitation plans to prevent conflicts and confusion.
Supervised Visitation: When the children's safety and well-being require that visits with the other parent be supervised by you, another adult, or a professional agency. Click here for more information on supervised visitation. Supervised visitation is sometimes also used in cases where a child and a parent need time to become more familiar with each other, like if a parent hasn�t seen the child in a long time and they need to slowly get to know each other again.
No Visitation: This option is used in situations when visiting with the parent, even with supervision, would be physically or emotionally harmful to the children. In these cases, it is not in the best interest of the child for the parent to have contact with the child.
What are a �time-share plan� and a �parenting plan�?
A time-share plan is another term used for visitation plan.
A parenting plan can be a visitation plan, but usually also includes a custody plan that explains who has legal and physical custody.
What does the law consider when deciding custody and visitation?
The law says that judges must give custody according to what is in the best interest of the child. Judges look at the children�s health, safety and wellbeing to decide whether to give custody to one or both parents. Courts also consider any history of abuse by one or both of the parents.
Courts do not automatically give custody to the mother or the father, no matter what the age or sex of your children. Courts cannot deny your right to custody or visitation just because you were never married to the other parent, or because you or the other parent has a physical disability, or a different lifestyle, religious belief or sexual orientation.
In a few cases, if giving custody to either parent would harm the children, courts give custody to someone other than the parents because it is in the best interest of the children. Usually, this is called �guardianship,� where someone who is not the parent asks for custody of the children because the parents cannot care for the children. Click here for more information on guardianship.
What is �the best interest of the child�?
It is what judges must consider to make their decisions about custody and visitation. To decide what is best for a child, the court will consider:
the age of the child,
the health of the child,
the emotional ties between the parents and the child,
the ability of the parents to care for the child,
history of family violence and/or substance abuse, and
the child�s ties to school, home, and his or her community.
If we have joint legal custody, do we have to agree on every decision?
No. With joint legal custody both parents have the right to make decisions and either parent can make a decision alone. But to avoid having problems and ending up back in court, both parents should communicate with each other and cooperate in making decisions together.
If we have joint physical custody, do our children have to spend exactly half the time with each of the parents?
No. If there is joint physical custody, usually the children spend a little more time with one parent than the other because it�s too hard to split the time exactly in half. When one parent has the child more than half of the time, then that parent is sometimes called the "primary custodial parent.�