The law in Georgia is pretty clear when it comes to most issues related to divorce, separation and co-parenting. However, like most statutes, the rules governing these issues in Georgia can be a bit difficult to understand, especially for people without legal training and experience.
In this blog post, we will look at the basic requirements for an acceptable parenting plan in Georgia. By doing so, you can gain a better understanding of these laws and gain confidence as you approach custody and visitation proceedings.
The Basics of the Statute
e 19-9-1 19-9-1 list out six basic requirements for acceptable parenting plans:
- Physical care schedule that designates where the child will be every day of the year
- Particular scheduling attention and planning paid to special times of the year like school breaks, holidays and the like
- The details of the transportation arrangements, including transportation, exchange and other related details
- Details regarding any supervision required for any parenting time
- Legal custody details, or the “allocation of decision-making authority to one or both of the parents with regard to the child’s education, health, extracurricular activities, and religious upbringing, and if the parents agree the matters should be jointly decided, how to resolve a situation in which the parents disagree on resolution”
- Limitations on one parent contacting the child and that parent’s right to access of information when the other parent is exercising physical custody.
For many people, it is a surprise to learn how detailed the requirements are, but they make sense in a lot of ways. While articulating a plan for every day of the year for your child (including special attention for holidays) might seem excessive, many problems can arise when these details aren’t attended to on the front end.
Another important factor in these requirements involves the details around legal custody. In contrast to physical custody, legal custody involves the decision-making and child-rearing authority. It is critical to work out in advance the scopes and limits of this type of authority between each parent and to a plan for what to do in the event of disagreement.
Finally, access to the child and to the child’s information for the non-custodial parent can be extremely important, especially in situations where one parent has been shown to be unfit as a custodial parent.
When you break down these issues one by one, the entire process of making these decisions can become much simpler.
