Visitation Schedules for School Age Children

How do I make a visitation schedule for a school age child?

You can create your own custody and visitation schedule (on your own or with the other parent) or you can work with a lawyer or legal professional and have them create it. If you don't want to pay the high cost of a lawyer, and want to easily make your own schedule, you can use the Custody X Change software.

How does school have an effect on the visitation schedule?

When you have a school age child, your child visitation schedule will need to accommodate his or her school schedule. Before your child started school, you could be more flexible with your schedule as it only had to accommodate your work schedules.

Once your child starts school, however, you will have to create a visitation schedule that works with both parents' employment schedules and your child's schedule. You will also need to factor in any extracurricular and after school activities your child may have.

Additionally, you will need to consider whether or not your child has homework and what time your child needs to go to bed. If your child goes to sleep at 8:00pm, it doesn't make sense to have visitation until 8:00pm during the week. You will need to adjust the time so the child can be home in time to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

When you use Custody X Change to create your custody agreement and child visitation schedule, you will have access to the time sharing percentage report. The great thing about this report is that you can actually block out the time your child is in school and figure out an exact percentage of how much time each parent actually has the child.

This can come in handy if one parent is fighting for more time. You can show him or her (or the judge) exactly how much time each of you will actually have your child.

This can also be helpful if you need to make an adjustment the amount to child support paid or received. Removing the time your child is in school from the equation can have a significant impact on the actual amount of time each parent is able to spend with the child.

How does distance have an effect on my schedule?

If you live fairly close to the other parent, it will be feasible for each of you to see your child several times a week. You would even be able to have overnight visits during the week since it would be easy for the nonprimary parent to take the child to school.

If you live further apart, you make have to get creative with the schedule since it won't be as convenient for any of you to make a long trip for visitation. If this applies to your situation, you should take advantage of long weekends and school breaks to make up some of the time you may have lost during the school year.

Some parents even elect to have their child live with one parent during the school year (and have weekend visits with the other parent) and then switch in the summer so they live with the other parent (while having visits with the "primary" parent).

However you decide to make your schedule, Custody X Change is a valuable tool available for you to use to make the perfect schedule for your child.

How can I plan for vacation time when my child is in school?

Education is important and most parents do not want their children to miss school for personal vacations. Most parents schedule vacation time with their children when the children are not in school.

Children on traditional school schedules get time off for Thanksgiving, the winter holidays, spring break, and summer vacation. Children on a year-round schedule also get time off for the holidays, but they have a few weeks off between semesters instead of a summer vacation.

Many schools post their calendars online so you will be able to plan out vacation time in advance. If you use Custody X Change to create your custody plan, you can add these school breaks to the schedule so you will be able to plan your vacation as you look at your custody calendar.

What if I want to use vacation time during the school year?

There are occasions when you may wish to take your kids out of school. For example, if you wanted to attend an out of state family wedding that occurs during the middle of the school year.

If you feel it is acceptable to take your child out of school for vacation time, you should make sure the other parent agrees with your decision. You can also talk to the school and let them know your child is going to be absent. You can usually get their class work and homework in advance, so they don't miss anything or get behind.

You may want to schedule the vacation time around a weekend or school break so your child doesn't miss as many days of school.

You can use Custody X Change to keep track of all your vacation time and you can add provisions to your custody agreement that state how much advance notice should be given before taking the child on vacation. You can also use Custody X Change to add stipulations to your plan that state whether or not either parent can leave the state or country with the child.

The easiest way to make a schedule for school age children

Creating a schedule on your own can feel overwhelming. You have to be sure to use airtight legal language and can't omit any required information.

The Custody X Change app takes the guesswork out of the equation by helping you build a schedule piece by piece.

As a result, you get a written schedule and a visual calendar. They meet your family's needs, as well as the court's standards.

For quick, reliable and affordable help making a custody schedule, turn to Custody X Change.