Parenting Plan: What Florida Parents Need to Know

The Short Answer: Yes, You Need One

Florida law does not treat a parenting plan as optional paperwork. Under section 61.046(14), Florida Statutes, a parenting plan must either be developed and agreed to by the parents and approved by the court or, if the parents cannot agree, be established by the court, and section 61.13(2)(c) directs the court to determine all matters of parenting and time-sharing. In practice that means a plan in any action where time-sharing with a minor child is at issue: divorce, paternity, or a modification of an earlier order.

If the parents agree, they submit their own plan and the judge reviews it for the child’s best interests. If they cannot agree, the judge writes the plan for them after hearing evidence. There is no third option where a Florida family court signs a final judgment involving children and simply leaves the arrangement informal.

That matters practically as well as legally. Until a judge signs a parenting plan, a handshake arrangement between parents is unenforceable. If the other parent stops returning your child on Sundays, a police officer or a judge can only enforce what is in a written court order.

What Florida Law Requires the Plan to Contain

Section 61.13(2)(b) sets a floor. A parenting plan approved by a Florida court must, at a minimum, describe in adequate detail:

• How the parents will share and be responsible for the daily tasks associated with the upbringing of the child.
• The time-sharing schedule: the specific arrangements that spell out the time the minor child will spend with each parent.
• A designation of who is responsible for health care, for school-related matters (including the address used for school-boundary determination and registration), and for other activities.
• The methods and technologies the parents will use to communicate with the child.
• Authorized locations for the exchange of the child, unless both parents agree otherwise in writing.

In practice, well-drafted plans go further: holiday and school-break rotations, summer schedules, birthdays, travel and passport rules, how the parents will communicate with each other, who may pick the child up from school, and how future disputes get resolved before anyone files a motion.

Parental Responsibility vs. Time-Sharing

Florida abandoned the words “custody” and “visitation” years ago. Two separate concepts replaced them, and a parenting plan has to address both.

Parental responsibility is decision-making authority: schooling, non-emergency medical care, religious upbringing, extracurriculars. Florida’s default is shared parental responsibility, meaning both parents confer and decide together. A court orders sole parental responsibility only where shared responsibility would be detrimental to the child. A plan can also give one parent “ultimate authority” over a specific category, such as medical decisions, when the parents cannot agree.

Time-sharing is the calendar: who has the child on which days and overnights. Since July 1, 2023, Florida courts apply a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing is in the child’s best interests. A parent seeking something other than a 50/50 schedule has to rebut that presumption by a preponderance of the evidence, and the judge weighs the twenty best-interests factors in section 61.13(3).

The Official Forms

The Florida Supreme Court publishes approved parenting plan forms, and most circuits expect you to use one:

• Form 12.995(a): the standard parenting plan, used when supervision and safety are not concerns.
• Form 12.995(b): the supervised or safety-focused plan.
• Form 12.995(c): the relocation parenting plan, used with a relocation under section 61.13001.

The forms are a starting point, not a strategy. They leave the substantive choices (the schedule, the decision-making structure, the exchange logistics) entirely to you, and a plan that reads well in a template can still fail a family whose work schedules, school district, or special-needs situation the form never anticipated.

The Parenting Course You Also Have To Take

Separate from the plan itself, section 61.21, Florida Statutes, requires each parent in a divorce involving minor children, and in paternity cases where parental responsibility is at issue, to complete a Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course. The course must be at least four hours long and taught by a provider approved by the Florida Department of Children and Families. Proof of completion has to be filed with the clerk before the judge enters a final judgment. A missing course certificate can leave an otherwise finished uncontested case waiting.

Can a Parenting Plan Be Changed Later?

Yes, but not casually. Once a judge signs it, changing the plan requires a supplemental petition and proof of a substantial and material change in circumstances, plus a finding that the change serves the child’s best interests. Since 2023, the change no longer has to be “unanticipated,” but ordinary life events still will not clear the bar. That is a strong argument for building flexibility into the original plan rather than assuming you will fix it later.

Parenting Plans in Miami-Dade County

Parenting plans in Miami are filed with the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts and reviewed by the family division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. Under Section 61.21, both parties in a dissolution involving minor children (and in a paternity case involving parental responsibility) must complete the DCF-approved parenting course before the final judgment, and in a modification of a parenting plan or time-sharing schedule the court may require the course before it enters the modification order. The court can excuse a party for good cause, and proof of completion is filed with the clerk. Family Court Services offers mediation, and judges may refer parents there to try to resolve a disputed schedule before setting an evidentiary hearing, and a disputed parenting plan can be settled at that stage.

Local realities shape good Miami plans: parents commuting between Brickell and Kendall, families splitting time across Hialeah and Coral Gables, hurricane-season school closures, and international travel with children who have relatives abroad. Arturo R. Alfonso P.A. has drafted and litigated parenting plans for Miami-Dade families in English and Spanish for 30 years. If you need help building a parenting plan that a judge can approve and that will actually work on a Tuesday afternoon, we can help.

Related Questions

• Is Florida a 50/50 custody state?
• Can child custody be modified after divorce in Florida?
• How is child support calculated in Florida?
• How far can a parent move with a child in Florida?
• What makes a parent unfit for custody in Florida?
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