Parenting Plans In Florida

Types of Parenting Plans

The Twelfth Judicial Circuit has established Shared Parental Contact Guidelines which has been revised by the Custody and Visitation Guidelines Committee of the Family Law Advisory Group.  These new "Parenting Plans" were developed  to assist parents in having choices that will help them with their parental duties of shared visitation and custody when a divorce has affected their children.  The Instructions and Assessments for Your Parenting Plan document lists out the four plans a parent can choose from in determining what is most suitable for their family.  The four plans include:

• Basic Plan
• Long Distance Plan
• Highly Structured Plan
• Safety Focused Plan

These plans offer a detailed breakdown of what areas of a child's welfare need to be agreed to among the parents, including health care, schooling, visitation schedules for every day, week end, holidays, important personal dates and other pertinent issues involved in child rearing.  Each specific plan focuses on different situations families might encounter.  The basic plan is good for families residing near each other and the long distance plan is useful for the parent who is not local and needs to keep involved in their child's life remotely.  The highly structured plan is for those parents who have difficulty in communicating and may be having continued conflict.  The safety focused plan deals normally with arranging the child's visitation and upbringing responsibilities on the one parent who has custody, with usually the non custodial parent - because of safety issues for the child's welfare - being restricted as to decision making and visitation rights.

As can be seen, these Plans are complex and require careful attention to detail in order for the court to approve them and for you to have the type of relationship with your ex-spouse and your child that will work for you in the long run.  To assist you in preparing these documents, contact our Florida family law attorney at the Law Office of Tauna R. Bogle, P.A. for experienced legal help.  Attorney Bogle has helped numerous families with their divorce and child custody proceedings and will be able to help you make the difficult decisions in the Parenting Plans so that you and your family can look forward to your future.