What is a Parenting Plan?

What Is a Parenting Plan in Missouri?

A parenting plan is a written document each parent proposes, setting out the custody schedule, how decisions about the children get made, and how the children’s expenses get paid, which becomes a court order once a judge adopts it.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. The plan starts as your proposal, not the court’s. You write it, the other parent writes one, and the judge either adopts one of them, adopts a blend, or writes one.

Missouri does not leave the contents to preference either. Section 452.310.8 RSMo lists what a parenting plan has to cover, in detail, and leaving items out is how plans get sent back.

When Does a Parenting Plan Have to Be Filed?

Within thirty days after service of process or the filing of an entry of appearance, whichever comes first.

Section 452.310.8 RSMo opens with the deadline. “The petitioner and respondent shall submit a proposed parenting plan, either individually or jointly, within thirty days after service of process or the filing of the entry of appearance, whichever event first occurs of a motion to modify or a petition involving custody or visitation issues.”

Note what happens if nobody files one. Section 452.310.9 RSMo says that where the proposed plans differ and the parties cannot resolve the differences, or where any party fails to file a plan, then “upon motion of either party and an opportunity for the parties to be heard, the court shall enter a temporary order containing a parenting plan.” That order runs until further order of the court, and the statute adds that it “shall not create a preference for the court in its adjudication of final custody, child support or visitation.”

Two things follow. Nothing happens automatically, because it takes a motion by a party. And a temporary parenting plan is not a head start, because the statute says in terms that it creates no preference.

What Are the 3 Essential Parts of a Parenting Plan?

A schedule, a decision making plan, and a plan for money, in that order, and Section 452.310.8 RSMo numbers them exactly that way.

1. The schedule. “A specific written schedule detailing the custody, visitation and residential time for each child with each party,” with nine categories named underneath it
2. Legal custody. “A specific written plan regarding legal custody which details how the decision-making rights and responsibilities will be shared between the parties,” with seven categories underneath
3. Expenses. How the expenses of the child “including child care, educational and extraordinary expenses as defined in the child support guidelines established by the supreme court, will be paid,” with six categories underneath

The word “specific” appears in the first two. That is the whole design of the statute, and it is the reason a vague parenting plan is a defective one.

What Has to Be in the Custody Schedule?

Nine things, and most homemade plans cover four of them.

• Major holidays. Stating which holidays a party has each year
• School holidays. For school age children
• The three personal days. The child’s birthday, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day
• Weekday and weekend schedules. Plus how winter, spring, summer and other school vacations get spent
• Exchanges. The times and places for transfer of the child between the parties
• Transportation. A plan for sharing transportation duties associated with the residential schedule
• Phone access. Appropriate times for telephone access
• Temporary variations. Suggested procedures for notifying the other party when a party requests a temporary variation from the schedule
• Restrictions. Any suggested restrictions or limitations on access to a party and the reasons they are requested

If you want to see how a conventional schedule reads in practice, our FAQ on the every other weekend custody schedule walks through one, and our FAQ on the young child plan covers the version built for very young children.

What Decisions Does the Legal Custody Section Cover?

Seven, and they are the ones parents actually fight about two years after the divorce is over.

• Education. Educational decisions and methods of communicating information from the school to both parties
• Health care. Medical, dental and health care decisions, how providers get selected, how medical conditions get communicated, and how emergency care is handled
• Activities. Extracurricular activities, including a method for determining which activities the child participates in when those activities fall in each parent’s time
• Child care. Child care providers and how they get selected
• Communication. Communication procedures, including access to telephone numbers as appropriate
• Disputes. A dispute resolution procedure for matters the parties disagree on or for interpreting the parenting plan
• Sole decision making. If a party suggests no shared decision-making, a statement of the reasons for the request

Legal custody is not the same as the schedule. Section 452.375.1(2) RSMo defines joint legal custody as parents sharing “the decision-making rights, responsibilities, and authority relating to the health, education and welfare of the child,” with a duty to confer unless the decree allocates otherwise. Our FAQs on joint legal custody and sole legal custody cover that split.

How Does a Parenting Plan Handle Money?

It has to state the suggested support amount, who carries insurance, how uncovered medical costs get paid, and who handles education, extraordinary expenses, child care and transportation.

That list is Section 452.310.8(3) RSMo. The support number itself runs on the guidelines. Rule 88.01 provides that “there is a rebuttable presumption that the amount of child support calculated pursuant to Civil Procedure Form No. 14 is the correct amount of child support to be awarded in any judicial or administrative proceeding.” Our FAQ on Missouri child support covers how that calculation works.

The Missouri Supreme Court’s approved form follows the same architecture. Form CAFC501, Parenting Plan, revised 01/01/2018, runs in two parts. Part A is custody of the children. Part B is support of the children.

Can a Parenting Plan Change on a Future Date?

Yes, but only where the trigger is something certain, and Missouri draws that line hard.

The rule against conditional judgments comes from Burch v. Burch, 805 S.W.2d 341, docket 58199, decided by the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District on 12 March 1991. The trial court had given the mother primary physical custody conditioned on her continuing to live with her parents. The appellate court would not have it.

“A conditional judgment, that is one whose enforcement is dependent upon the performance of future acts by a litigant and which is to be annulled if default occurs, is void.”

The court added the reason. “Unless a judgment is susceptible of enforcement without requiring resort to external proof, it is void.” It reversed and remanded with directions to enter an unconditional judgment.

Now the other side of the line. In Pijanowski v. Pijanowski, 272 S.W.3d 321, docket WD 69193, decided by the Western District on 21 October 2008, the parents alternated custody in thirty day blocks until the child started kindergarten, at which point he would primarily reside with his father. Affirmed.

“Unlike the provisions in Burch, Dusing, and Rice, the enforcement of the trial court’s judgment is not dependent upon future acts by the parties but is, instead, based upon the known need of the child to have a predictable and stable custody arrangement, particularly when school begins.”

And on why the date was safe. “The trial court’s order was not speculative as there was a reasonable certainty that Elijah would begin kindergarten in August 2008.”

Translated. A parenting plan that changes when a child starts school is fine. A parenting plan that changes if a parent moves, stays sober, keeps a job or gets remarried is not, because enforcing it would require proving what somebody did. Tie the change to a date or an age, never to a person’s future behavior.

What Gets a Parenting Plan Sent Back?

Leaving out items the statute lists, and it takes less omission than people expect.

In Fessler v. McGovern, 524 S.W.3d 208, docket WD80056, Missouri Court of Appeals Western District, 1 August 2017, a paternity case, the adopted plan set weekend and summer time but no holiday or special occasion schedule at all. The custody award was affirmed and the plan was not.

“The trial court is not free to disregard any of these enumerated events so that the failure of the trial court to include all enumerated events in the parenting plan is reversible error.”

The same opinion explains why the statute is written this way. A compliant plan is required to “prevent courts from being clogged with minor custody and visitation disputes.” The court remanded “to modify its parenting plan to account for all holidays and other special occasions as required by section 452.310.8.”

Wennihan v. Wennihan, docket WD77280, Missouri Court of Appeals Western District, 13 January 2015, shows how small the gap can be. The plan covered several holidays, spring break and Christmas, but overlooked Presidents’ Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The court held that “the trial court improperly failed to address Presidents’ Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, both of which are school holidays” and that “the failure to account for such holidays in the parenting plan constitutes reversible error.” Reversed in part and remanded on that ground alone.

Two missing school holidays. That is the margin. This is why a parenting plan copied off the internet is a liability rather than a shortcut.

Does the Court Have to Use a Standard Parenting Plan?

No, and since 2023 Missouri law forbids any court from requiring one.

Section 452.375.11 RSMo, added by SB 35, is direct. “No court shall adopt any local rule, form, or practice requiring a standardized or default parenting plan for interim, temporary, or permanent orders or judgments.”

The same subsection controls interim orders. A court “may enter an interim order in a proceeding under this chapter, provided that the interim order shall not contain any provisions about child custody or a parenting schedule or plan without first providing the parties with notice and a hearing, unless the parties otherwise agree.”

Read the last six words. Unless the parties otherwise agree. Agreement is the one route to an interim schedule without a hearing, which is worth knowing before anyone signs anything early in a case.

What About the Equal Parenting Time Presumption?

It is a rebuttable presumption about parenting time, not a rule that every parenting plan has to be fifty fifty.

Section 452.375.2 RSMo, in its current form, begins “the court shall determine custody in accordance with the best interests of the child. There shall be a rebuttable presumption that an award of equal or approximately equal parenting time to each parent is in the best interests of the child.” The presumption came in with SB 35 effective 28 August 2023, and the section’s current text dates from 28 August 2024.

Three qualifications travel with it and get dropped constantly. The presumption is rebuttable, not a mandate. It is about parenting time rather than legal custody. And the statute names the routes to rebut it, including where the parties have reached agreement on all custody issues and where the court finds a pattern of domestic violence.

One more subsection nobody cites. Section 452.375.8 RSMo says that “no preference may be given to either parent in the awarding of custody because of that parent’s age, sex, or financial status, nor because of the age or sex of the child.” An argument that runs from the child’s age to a particular schedule asks a court to do the thing the statute forbids. The argument that works is individualized evidence about this child. Our FAQ on where the children will live covers the practical version of that question.

How Do I Change a Parenting Plan Later?

It depends on whether you are rearranging the schedule or changing custody, and the two standards are not the same.

For custody itself, Section 452.410.1 RSMo requires the court to find, “upon the basis of facts that have arisen since the prior decree or that were unknown to the court at the time of the prior decree, that a change has occurred in the circumstances of the child or his custodian and that the modification is necessary to serve the best interests of the child.”

For a schedule rearrangement inside joint physical custody, the bar is lower. In Russell v. Russell, 210 S.W.3d 191, docket SC87917, the Supreme Court of Missouri en banc held on 9 January 2007 that “courts should not require a ‘substantial’ change from the circumstances of the original judgment where the modification sought is simply a rearrangement in a joint physical custody schedule.”

The limit is in the same opinion. “That is the proper standard to use in all cases, except where one party is seeking to revise or modify a judgment to deprive one custodial parent of custody altogether, that is, a change from a joint custody decree to a judgment with sole custody.”

Relocation runs on its own track. Section 452.377 RSMo requires written notice “by certified mail, return receipt requested,” at least sixty days in advance, and the other parent has thirty days after receipt to file a motion to prevent it. The party seeking to relocate “shall have the burden of proving that the proposed relocation is made in good faith and is in the best interest of the child.” Our page on relocating your child in Missouri covers that sequence.

What Does a Parenting Plan Not Decide?

Three things, and each one gets written into plans that did not need it.

It does not divide property or debt. Those are separate parts of the judgment.

It does not create your right to school and medical records, because the statute already does. Section 452.375.12 RSMo gives both parents access to “records and information pertaining to a minor child including, but not limited to, medical, dental, and school records” unless custody or visitation rights have been denied. Section 452.376.1 RSMo separately entitles a noncustodial parent or a parent with joint custody to “any deficiency slips, report cards or pertinent progress reports” on request and on payment of an administrative fee.

It does not stop two parents from agreeing to something different next Tuesday. A parenting plan is the floor you fall back on when agreement fails, which is why attorneys say the best parenting plan is the one that goes in a drawer and never comes out. Having it there is what makes the drawer possible.

Who Can Help With a Parenting Plan in St. Louis?

The useful help is in the drafting, because the statute’s list is long and the cases above show what omissions cost.

Bardol Law Firm practices only family law, and we are in the St. Louis County, St. Louis City, St. Charles County and Jefferson County courts regularly. Bring your work calendar, the school calendar, the children’s activity schedules and the drive times between the two homes, because those four things decide more of a workable parenting plan than any legal argument does. Our child custody page covers the wider case and our other family law questions and answers cover the rest.

You should not have to chase your attorney for basic updates while a thirty day filing deadline is running. Every client here has a named paralegal on the file, and we generally return calls within one business day.

Family Law, Simplified.
If you have been served and the parenting plan deadline is coming, that is the call worth making this week. Contact Bardol Law Firm or call 314.918.0100.

This page is general information about Missouri law and is not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts. The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.