Can Child Custody Be Modified After Divorce in Florida?

Yes. A Florida parenting plan or time-sharing schedule can be modified after divorce, but the parent asking for the change must prove two things: a substantial and material change in circumstances since the last order, and that the change is in the child’s best interests. Florida law no longer requires the change to be “unanticipated.”

The Two-Part Test Under Florida Law

Section 61.13(3), Florida Statutes, is direct about it: a parenting plan, time-sharing schedule, or parental responsibility determination “may not be modified without a showing of a substantial and material change in circumstances and a determination that the modification is in the best interests of the child.”

Both halves matter. If a judge is not persuaded that circumstances have substantially and materially changed since the last order, the court never reaches the best-interests question and the petition is dismissed. Only after that threshold is cleared does the judge weigh the twenty best-interests factors listed in the statute.

What Changed in 2023 — and Why It Matters

Before July 1, 2023, Florida required the change to be “substantial, material, and unanticipated.” A parent could clear every other hurdle and still lose because the judge decided the change was foreseeable at the time of the divorce.

House Bill 1301 (Ch. 2023-301, Laws of Florida) deleted the word “unanticipated” from the standard. Today a change that both parents could have seen coming — a promotion with new hours, a child aging into a different school schedule — can still support a modification if it is substantial and material and the modification serves the child.

The same 2023 law created a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing is in the child’s best interests. A parent opposing a 50/50 schedule must rebut that presumption by a preponderance of the evidence. And unless the parents agree to a schedule the court approves, the judge must evaluate every statutory best-interests factor and enter specific written findings of fact when modifying a time-sharing schedule.

Changes That Commonly Support Modification

Florida courts have found the threshold met in circumstances such as:

• A parent relocating. A move of 50 or more miles for 60 consecutive days or longer is governed by its own statute (§ 61.13001) and requires either written agreement or court approval.
• Moving closer. The statute expressly says that when parents lived more than 50 miles apart when the last order was entered and one parent then moves within 50 miles of the other, that move may be treated as a substantial and material change — which can help a long-distance parent regain regular time.
• A material change in a parent’s work schedule that changes who is actually available for the child.
• The child’s changing needs as they get older — school, medical, or developmental needs the existing plan cannot accommodate.
• Concerns about a parent’s fitness, including substance abuse, domestic violence, neglect, or an unsafe household.
• Repeated, unjustified denial of the other parent’s time-sharing. Section 61.13(4)(c) lets the court order makeup time, fees, and — on request of the parent who did not violate the schedule — modify the parenting plan itself.
• The child’s reasonable preference, if the court finds the child mature enough to express one. In Florida there is no magic age at which a child gets to choose.

What Usually Is Not Enough

Ordinary life does not reopen a parenting plan. A new romantic partner, a modest raise, a new school year, a disagreement over homework or bedtime rules, or general dissatisfaction with the schedule will not, standing alone, meet the standard. Courts protect stability — the length of time a child has lived in a stable, satisfactory environment is itself one of the statutory best-interests factors.

Temporary hardship is also different from a lasting change. Judges look for a change that is real, ongoing, and connected to the child’s welfare, not a rough few months.

How the Modification Process Works

A modification starts with a supplemental petition filed in the circuit court — under § 61.13(2)(d), either the court that entered the original order or the circuit where a parent and the child now live. The other parent is served and has 20 days to respond. Both sides typically exchange updated financial affidavits if support is also at issue, since a change to the time-sharing schedule frequently changes the child support calculation under § 61.30.

Most Florida circuits require mediation before a contested modification hearing. If the parents reach agreement there, the judge can approve the new plan without a trial — far faster and dramatically less expensive than litigating.

If the parents already agree on the change, they can file an agreed supplemental petition with a proposed amended parenting plan. That is the least costly path by a wide margin. One caution: an informal handshake arrangement is not enforceable. Until a judge signs an amended order, the existing plan is still the one a court will enforce.

Modifying Custody in Miami-Dade County

Modification petitions in Miami are filed with the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts and heard in the family division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. Reopening a closed family case for a modification carries a clerk’s reopen fee of up to $50 under § 28.241, Florida Statutes, plus roughly $10 for a summons and $40–$100 for service of process on the other parent — a fraction of the cost of the original divorce. The Eleventh Circuit offers family mediation, and Miami-Dade judges routinely refer contested time-sharing modifications there before setting an evidentiary hearing.

Arturo R. Alfonso P.A. has represented Miami-Dade parents in English and Spanish for over 35 years, from Brickell and Coral Gables to Kendall, Hialeah, and Cutler Bay. If you have been searching for a child custody modification lawyer near me in Miami, we can tell you honestly whether your situation is likely to meet Florida’s substantial-change standard before you spend money filing.

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