§ / 01
What every plan must cover
A parenting plan is not a vibe; it is a document with required contents. The timesharing schedule — school weeks, weekends, holidays, and summer — is the core. Around it: how parental responsibility is shared, who decides on education, healthcare, and extracurriculars, which parent’s address controls school designation, how the parents will communicate with each other and with the children, and the logistics of exchanges and travel. The best plans are specific enough that two people who no longer agree on much can follow them without calling their lawyers.
§ / 02
The 50/50 presumption — and what rebuts it
Since July 2023, Florida law presumes that equal timesharing is in a child’s best interests. The presumption is rebuttable by a preponderance of the evidence, and the court must still work through the statutory best-interest factors and make written findings. In practice, geography, work schedules, the children’s ages and needs, and safety concerns are what move courts off an equal schedule. Whichever side of the presumption you are on, the case is won with evidence, not adjectives.
§ / 03
The best-interest factors, in plain English
The statute lists roughly twenty factors; the themes are simple. Which parent facilitates the child’s relationship with the other — and which one undermines it. Who has actually performed the daily parenting: homework, doctors, practices, mornings. Stability and continuity. Each parent’s physical and mental health. The child’s ties to school and community. Any history of violence, abuse, or substance problems. And, with appropriate weight for age and maturity, the child’s own reasonable preference. Judges are pattern-readers; the factors are the pattern they read for.
§ / 04
The parenting course — a hard prerequisite
Florida requires both parents in a dissolution with minor children to complete a four-hour Parent Education and Family Stabilization course from an approved provider before the final judgment can be entered. It is inexpensive, available online, and best knocked out early — a missing certificate is a needless reason to delay a final hearing that everything else is ready for.
§ / 05
When safety is the issue
The presumption of shared parenting yields where a parent presents a danger. Evidence of domestic violence, abuse, or serious substance misuse can rebut shared parental responsibility entirely, and courts can order supervised timesharing, exchanges through neutral locations, sobriety conditions, or sole decision-making authority. These cases are evidence-intensive and emotionally brutal, and they are precisely where careful lawyering — documentation, injunction practice, expert input — matters most.
§ / 06
Relocation is its own statute
After the plan is in place, a parent who wants to move fifty miles or more for sixty days or longer cannot simply go. Florida’s relocation statute requires either a signed agreement or a court petition decided on its own best-interest analysis — and moving without one is a fast way to lose the very timesharing you are trying to protect. If a move is even on the horizon during your divorce, the plan should be drafted with that future fight in mind.
The Steady Hand
Judges read patterns: the school portal logins, the pediatrician visits, the coach’s emails. We help you build that record deliberately, starting now — because at trial, a track record beats an accusation every single time.