Florida stopped using the word “custody” in its parenting statutes in 2008. In its place the law uses two separate ideas: parental responsibility, which is who makes the big decisions, and timesharing, which is the schedule of when the child is with each parent. Understanding that split is the first step to reading your own case correctly, because the two are decided on different grounds and can come out very differently.
Parental responsibility and timesharing are two different things
Parental responsibility covers the major decisions in a child's life: school, non-emergency health care, religious upbringing, and similar choices. Florida courts start from shared parental responsibility, meaning both parents keep a say. Sole parental responsibility is ordered only when shared responsibility would be detrimental to the child.
Timesharing is the calendar. It sets which nights the child sleeps at each home, how holidays rotate, how summer is split, and how exchanges happen. A parent can have equal decision-making authority and still have a minority of the overnights, or the reverse. The two questions are answered separately.
The 2023 change: equal timesharing now starts as the presumption
Florida law changed in a significant way in July 2023. Section 61.13(2)(c)(1) of the Florida Statutes now includes a rebuttable presumption that equal timesharing is in the best interest of the child. That presumption applies to every case involving minor children.
Rebuttable is the important word. Equal timesharing is where the court begins, not where it must end. A parent asking for something other than a 50/50 schedule has to show by a preponderance of the evidence that equal timesharing is not in the child's best interest, using the statutory factors. Distance between homes, work schedules, a history of violence, substance abuse, or a parent's long absence from the child's daily life are the kinds of facts that move a court off the presumption.
What the judge actually weighs
Section 61.13(3) lists the best-interest factors a court must consider when it sets or changes a timesharing schedule. Judges are required to evaluate all of them that apply. Some of the ones that carry the most weight in practice:
- Each parent's demonstrated ability to support a close relationship between the child and the other parent
- How parental responsibilities were actually divided before the case started, and who handled the day-to-day tasks
- The geographic viability of the plan, especially the school-year travel it requires
- The moral fitness, mental health, and physical health of each parent
- The child's home, school, and community record, and the value of keeping it stable
- Evidence of domestic violence, child abuse, abandonment, or neglect
- Each parent's capacity to put the child's needs ahead of their own wishes
- The reasonable preference of the child, if the court finds the child is mature enough to express one
Common Florida timesharing schedules
There is no state-mandated schedule. Courts approve whatever fits the child, and parents who agree on a plan are almost always approved. A few patterns show up again and again in Florida orders:
- Week on / week off, simple, few exchanges, and best for older children whose parents live close together
- 2-2-3, alternating weekends with two-day midweek blocks, common for younger children who need frequent contact with both parents
- 2-2-5-5, a fixed weekday pattern with alternating long weekends, so each parent always has the same weekdays
- Alternating weekends plus one midweek evening, the traditional minority-time schedule, still used when distance or work makes equal time impractical
- Long-distance plans, school year with one parent and extended summer plus most school breaks with the other
Writing a schedule the court will approve
Judges look for parenting plans that a stranger could follow without calling either parent. The plans that get sent back are the vague ones. Put exact times and exact locations on every exchange. Say who drives which direction. Assign every holiday by name and say how it rotates by year. Cover school breaks, birthdays, and the child's travel out of state.
Then build in the boring machinery: how the parents communicate, how much notice a schedule change needs, who gets the first chance to care for the child when the other parent is unavailable, and how a disagreement gets resolved before anyone files a motion. Those clauses are what keep you out of court two years from now.
Changing a timesharing schedule later
A schedule in a final judgment stays in force until a court changes it. To modify timesharing, a parent must show a substantial and material change in circumstances and that the change is in the child's best interest. The 2023 amendments removed the older requirement that the change also be unanticipated, which lowered the bar somewhat, but it is still a real burden. A parent who simply changed their mind will not meet it.
Until a judge signs a new order, the existing one governs. Withholding a child because you believe the schedule is unfair exposes you to a contempt motion, and it damages your position in the modification case you are trying to win.
Questions about your own case?
Yvette B. Reyes, Esq. offers a free first consultation, in English or Spanish, for families across South Florida and the Treasure Coast.
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This article is general information about Florida law, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Florida law changes, and every case turns on its own facts. Full disclaimer.