Connecticut Parenting Time Schedules (Visitation)

Your parenting time schedule, which you may hear referred to as a custody or visitation schedule, says when your child spends time with each parent.

Your court order will express your schedule in words. Keep a visual calendar too for clarity.

Keep in mind that the Connecticut guidelines for child support assume the paying parent has the child for about 20 percent of the time. If they have significantly more parenting time than this, the court may order a lower payment.

How you get a parenting time schedule

When you file for divorce or custody, the court will consider how much parenting time you'll each have.

You'll need a regular schedule and possibly a summer schedule for when school is out. Consider what you'll do for holidays too. As you may not know exactly when you'll take your child on vacation, it may make sense to give each other yearly vacation allowances to be flexible about that special time.

Propose the schedule you want. You can easily create a schedule in Custody X Change, and if your co-parent subscribes too, you can link accounts to share your drafts.

Your co-parent has the right to propose their own schedule to the court. Many parents find it hard to negotiate with each other directly; if that's the case, you can hire a mediator or speak through your lawyers.

Reaching agreement speeds up your court process and saves you money. But if you can't reach agreement, a judge can consider your proposals and make a decision for you.

Once a judge turns your schedule into a court order, you have to follow it, though you can work with each other to accommodate minor changes.

Why some parents don't have a schedule

Some co-parents in Connecticut prefer not to submit a schedule. Their reasons could be:

• They live close to each other.
• They're amicable and communicate well about scheduling.
• They're flexible about where their child is on any given day.
• Their child is nearly a legal adult.

If you're both confident you can handle it together, you can write in your parenting plan that you'll try to work it out on your own and that you'll go to mediation if you can't. The judge may accept this.

Unequal time schedule ideas

Sometimes unequal time is best for the child as well as for the parents. Reasons could include:

• One parent lives far away from the child's school, making it hard to bring them there or pick them up.
• The parents live far apart from each other, making it hard to exchange the child.
• The parents have toxic dynamics with each other.
• There are concerns about the child's safety, requiring limited or supervised visitation for one parent.

Here are some common schedules with unequal time splits.

Alternating weekends: The child spends most of the time with one parent and goes to the other parent's home every other weekend. It could be a long weekend, and there could be a weekday visit on the off week. This is an 80/20 schedule.

Every weekend: The child spends weekdays with one parent and weekends with the other parent. This is a 70/30 schedule.

4-3: This schedule is a 60/40 split. One parent has four days, then the other has three days. Every week has the same pattern.

Equal time schedule ideas

For young kids, courts commonly order a 2-2-3 schedule. The child is with one parent for two days, then with the other for two days, then with the first parent for the remaining three days in the week. The second week, it happens in reverse. The child sees both parents frequently, and the parents trade off who gets the weekend.

A school-age child might have a 2-2-5-5 schedule. Most commonly, one parent always has Monday through Wednesday, the other always has Wednesday through Friday, and they alternate weekends. As a child matures, they're better able to handle those five-day stretches between exchanges.

Teenagers may appreciate alternating weeks so they can minimize the distraction of going back and forth between their parents' homes. Teens usually want freedom to make their own social plans, have an after-school job or drive themselves to where they need to be.

Putting in details

Be specific about your exchange times. Pickup time isn't just "in the afternoon." And don't say "3 p.m." if you really mean "3:15 p.m." Write a schedule with what you actually mean to avoid arguments later.

Precision is important if you'll cite your parenting time to ask the court to adjust your child support amount. In your support application, negotiation or hearing, you may need to specify how many overnights or hours you have your child. Custody X Change gives you an easy way to calculate your time.

Preparing for unexpected events

Try to anticipate disruptions to your routine:

• What if school or camp has an early dismissal? Should your child return to the morning parent or go early to the evening parent?
• What if school or camp is canceled, or your child can't attend because they're sick?
• What if an activity is rescheduled so that instead of falling during your time, it'll be during the other parent's time — or vice versa?

Say how you'll handle these surprises and what kind of responsibility and flexibility you expect from each other. Your written explanation can go in your parenting plan.

If you're having trouble following the schedule

Cooperate with the other parent to continue to meet your co-parenting responsibilities as best you can. You're legally obligated to follow your court order until a court changes it.

If your circumstances have changed substantially or if it's otherwise in your child's best interest to have a different schedule, Connecticut allows you to ask to modify your schedule.

If one parent is intentionally defying the court order, the other can file a motion to ask the court to hold them in contempt. Try to work together for your child's sake.

The easiest way to make a schedule

If you're like most parents, creating a parenting time schedule will feel daunting. How do you make a document that's legally valid and doesn't leave any loose ends?

The Custody X Change app makes it easy. Either customize a schedule template, or click and drag in your custody calendar to make a schedule from scratch.

Then watch a full description appear in your parenting plan.

You and your co-parent can keep using the app to be notified of upcoming exchanges and to share your minor rescheduling adjustments.

The combination of a visual and written schedule easily communicates who has the child when. Take advantage of Custody X Change to make your schedule as clear and thorough as can be.