Children

Custody and Visitation

In Arizona, the courts favor joint legal custody. Legal custody pertains to decisionmaking in three major areas: medical, education and religion. In joint legal custody, neither parent stands in a superior decision making role; both parents have equal say in these three areas. It is presumed that both parties will agree upon the major issues, such as taking the child to the same pediatrician, being raised in certain religion, and agreeing upon whether the child needs tutoring or counseling. Joint legal custody can be awarded even if the parents live in different states. Research has found that when there is an award of joint legal custody, both parents tend to stay involved with the children. In sole legal custody, one parent has the final decision making in these areas. Sole legal custody may be awarded in the event of significant domestic violence in the relationship, or when it is not appropriate to award joint legal custody. Please see an attorney to discuss this issue.

Visitation (now called parenting time) can look the same under either joint or sole legal custody. A parenting time schedule spells out the times when each parent will spend time with the child. There are many different parenting plans. Some depend on the age of the child, and others depend on the work schedules of the parties. Still others are based on the parents' desires. The following website sets forth the variety of Arizona schedules: www.supreme.state.az.us/dr/parentingtime/ppwguidelines.pdf

The amount of parenting time affects the amount of child support to be paid. The more parenting time a parent has, the less the child support obligation is. The amount of days of parenting time is counted as follows:

• 1 day = 24 hours of time
• 1 day = a period of 12 or more hours
• 1/2 day = a period of 6-11 hours
• 1/4 day = a period of 3-5 hours

A period of less than 3 hours may count as 1/4 day if the visiting parent pays for routine expenses, such as a meal.

Child support is calculated, in part, upon the number of parenting days per year. When the parties do not live in the same geographical area, the court looks to long distance parenting time schedules. If the parties reside in different states or in different regions in Arizona, one parent may have the child during the school year (except for school breaks and/or long weekends), and the other parent may have parenting time during the majority of the summer.