Many, if not most, states use “custody” to refer to a parent’s physical custody, control, and decision-making authority over a child. When parents divorce, are separated, or are unmarried and not living together, the courts generally decide who has custody of the minor children. Oftentimes, the parent who does not receive primary custody usually has a visiting schedule.
Florida law does not typically speak of child custody and visitation rights in this regard. Instead, lawmakers introduced a parental responsibility and sharing plan to describe custody arrangements.
Parental Responsibility
Parental responsibility usually concerns the decisions made for the child. Typically, one or both parents assume or receive legal authority over the following matters:
- enrollment in school
- Services provided to the child by the school, such as individual educational plans or tutoring, as needed
- Child’s participation in extracurricular activities such as bands, sports, choirs, or clubs
- Medical treatments such as surgeries, therapies, rehabilitation and prescriptions
- Attending a church, synagogue, mosque or temple, or other matters pertaining to the child’s religious upbringing and education
- General care of the child
time sharing
Time-sharing features include child custody and visiting. A court plan or parental agreement regulates:
- Which days a parent spends with the child each week
- Where the child spends birthdays or holidays
- where the child will stay
The Florida Department of Treasury provides a standard parenting and time-sharing plan for IV-D cases that must be agreed upon by the parents. The schedule alternates between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and winter and spring break.
Determining the terms of the Parent Plan
The “parental plan” includes parental responsibility and the division of time with children.
By law, Florida law requires that children interact frequently, regularly, and continuously with both parents and that parents have equal parental responsibility. To this end, merely being a father or mother does not give either parent an automatic advantage in a domestic proceeding.
Instead, the general plan of parenting gives equal parental responsibility to both parents. This means that you and the other parent can decide together and, to the extent possible, agree on educational, extra-curricular, religious, medical and other matters affecting your child or children.
The judge can grant sole parental responsibility to one parent if joint responsibility would be “detrimental to the child.” Such a circumstance may arise when the parent who is being denied parental responsibility:
- Commits an act of domestic violence such as assault, kidnapping, sexual assault, or stalking of the other parent
- Commits a crime that results in the death or injury of a family or household member
- Commits a sexual offense (if the victim is at least 18 years old) and the victim was either under 18 years old at the time of the offense or, in the opinion of the perpetrator, was under 18 years old
- Either has been detained for a significant period of the minor child’s lifetime or is expected to be detained before the age of 18
If you are contesting the other parent’s ability to assume responsibility or custody of the minor child, you may need evidence that the parent is unable to assume that responsibility or share time. This can take the form of drug use, alcohol abuse, poisoning, or living in an unsafe or unsuitable environment for the children. You or your attorney may want photos or video of the other parent’s home to show the lack of security measures and the presence of exposed or loose wiring, unsanitary conditions, loose floors, and broken doors or windows.
maintenance for children
Financial support is one of the legal obligations of parents towards their children. The amount of child support that each parent is responsible for is calculated based on Florida child support policies. These essentially take into account the number of children, the needs of the children and income. Sources of income from which child support can be calculated include:
- Wages and salaries
- overtime pay
- bonuses
- profits from a company
- Social Security Payments
- disability payments
- alimony
- dividends
- Interest from savings accounts and bonds
- unemployment benefit
- Employee Compensation Benefits
- net rental income
- In the present case, alimony ordered or received from a previous marriage
Under a process called “credit,” courts can consider amounts as income that a parent might earn (even if not working) if the parent chooses not to work but is able to work. This prevents parents from intentionally reducing income in order to avoid child support payments.
The alimony guidelines take net income into account. Therefore, parents can deduct from gross income items such as tax withholdings, required monthly payments for union dues and pension contributions, health insurance payments (except for the minor child), and court-ordered child support payments. The Florida legislature provides a table for the combined minimum parental requirements based on the combined monthly net income of the parents and the number of children.
Contact a Tampa Divorce Attorney today.
If you are facing a divorce and need legal advice regarding child custody, contact a Tampa divorce attorney today.
Sometimes life takes an unexpected turn. With the right approach and the representation of an attorney who understands the intricacies of Florida divorce laws, you can have confidence in the outcome of your case. At Robert Sparks Lawyers, We take these matters seriously.
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