Parenting Plans in Georgia

When a parenting plan is required

In all cases where custody is at issue between the parents, each parent prepares a parenting plan, or the parties may submit one jointly (O.C.G.A. § 19-9-1(a)). The exception is when a parent seeks emergency relief for family violence under § 19-13-3 or 19-13-4.

• A parenting plan is required for permanent custody and modification actions.
• The court decides when a party must submit it, and may require one for temporary hearings.
• The final order in any custody case, including a modification, incorporates a permanent parenting plan, though unless the court orders otherwise a separate order devoted only to the plan is not required.

Uniform Superior Court Rule 24.10 repeats the requirement for cases involving permanent custody or custody modification, directs each parent to submit a plan or the parties to submit one jointly as directed by the judge, and says the plan should be tailored to the family.

What every plan must recognize

Unless the court orders otherwise, a parenting plan includes these statements (§ 19-9-1(b)(1)):

1. A close and continuing parent-child relationship and continuity in the child’s life will be in the child’s best interest.
2. The child’s needs will change and grow as the child matures, and the parents will make an effort to parent with that in mind so that future modifications are minimized.
3. A parent with physical custody makes day-to-day and emergency decisions while the child is residing with that parent.
4. Both parents have access to all of the child’s records and information, including education, health, health insurance, extracurricular activities, and religious communications.

What the plan has to cover

Unless the court orders otherwise or the parties agree otherwise, the plan includes at least (§ 19-9-1(b)(2)):

• Where and when the child will be in each parent’s physical care, designating where the child will spend each day of the year;
• How holidays, birthdays, vacations, school breaks, and other special occasions will be spent, including the time each begins and ends;
• Transportation: how and where the child is exchanged, how transportation costs are paid, and related matters;
• Whether any parenting time needs supervision, and the details;
• Who decides the child’s education, health, extracurricular activities, and religious upbringing, and, if the parents agree to decide jointly, how they will resolve disagreements;
• Any limits on the other parent contacting the child, or on access to education, health, extracurricular, and religious information, while the child is with one parent; and
• If a military parent is a party, how deployment will be handled, including the transition to the nondeploying parent, continuing contact, delegating parenting time to extended family, and resuming the plan afterward.

The statewide form

Rule 24.10 says the plan must at a minimum contain the information required by § 19-9-1(b) and be presented in substantially the form printed in the rule. That form is organized into these parts:

1. Custody and Decision Making: legal custody, the primary physical custodian for each child, day-to-day decisions, major decisions (education, non-emergency health care, religious upbringing, extracurricular activities), and how disagreements are resolved. Where joint physical custody is chosen or ordered, the form says a detailed plan of the living arrangements must be attached.
2. Parenting Time/Visitation Schedules: the regular schedule, major holidays and vacation periods, other holidays and birthdays, start and end times, coordination of schedules, transportation, contacting the child, supervision if any, and communication provisions.
3. Access to Records and Information.
4. Modification of Plan or Disagreements. The form states that parents may vary parenting time by mutual agreement, but that such an agreement is not a binding court order, and that custody may be modified only by court order.
5. Special Considerations, with an addendum for circumstances such as health or educational issues.
6. Parents’ Consent, initialed and signed when the parents agree, followed by the judge’s order adopting the plan.

Your superior court may publish its own version of the plan. If it does, ask whether that is the version the court expects, and make sure it covers everything in § 19-9-1(b).

If the parents do not agree

If the parties cannot agree on a permanent parenting plan, each party files and serves a proposed plan on or before the date set by the court. Failing to file a plan may result in the court adopting the other party’s plan if the judge finds that plan to be in the child’s best interests (§ 19-9-1(c)).

Primary sources

Laws, rules and forms change. Check the current version at the source before you file.

• O.C.G.A. § 19-9-1, parenting plans
• O.C.G.A. § 19-9-3(f), notice of change of residence
• O.C.G.A. § 19-13-3, family violence petitions
• Uniform Superior Court Rule 24.10, parenting plans