A California parenting plan template is available for free from the state courts as a set of Judicial Council forms, and two parents who can cooperate can complete one without an attorney. The main drafting form is FL-311, the Child Custody and Visitation (Parenting Time) Application Attachment, used when you are asking the court for orders. If you and the other parent already agree, you write the plan up and submit it on FL-355, the Stipulation and Order for Custody and/or Visitation. Once a judge signs either one, your plan becomes a court order with the same force as any custody ruling.
Decide the Type of Custody Before You Draft
Every California parenting plan rests on two separate custody choices, and you need to settle both before filling in a form.
Legal custody is the authority to make major decisions about your child’s health, education, and welfare. Physical custody is where the child lives. The two are independent: parents commonly share legal custody equally while one parent has primary physical custody. California law presumes joint custody serves a child’s best interests when both parents agree to it.
- Joint legal custody: both parents share decisions on schooling, medical treatment, and religious upbringing.
- Sole legal custody: one parent has the final say on major decisions.
- Joint physical custody: the child spends significant time with each parent, though the split does not have to be 50/50.
- Sole physical custody: the child lives primarily with one parent, and the other has visitation.
Joint legal custody means neither parent can unilaterally enroll the child in a new school or schedule elective surgery without the other’s input. If you expect friction on those decisions, write a tie-breaker into the plan. Some parents designate one parent as the final decision-maker on education and the other on healthcare.
What Your Parenting Plan Should Cover
The strength of a parenting plan lives in its specifics. Vague language like “reasonable visitation” gives you nothing to enforce when a disagreement arises. The more detail you put on paper now, the fewer arguments you will have later.
Weekly Schedule and Transitions
Spell out which days and times your child is with each parent. Include exact pickup and drop-off times, who does the transporting, and where exchanges happen. Many parents choose a neutral location like a school or public library, especially when communication between households is strained. If one parent consistently handles transportation, say so.
Holidays, Breaks, and Birthdays
Holiday conflicts are one of the most common reasons parents end up back in court. Address every major holiday, every school break, and special days like birthdays and Mother’s or Father’s Day. Two approaches work well:
- Alternating years: Parent A gets Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve on even years, Parent B on odd years, then swap.
- Fixed holidays with rotation: each parent always keeps certain holidays (one always has July 4th, the other always has Labor Day) while the bigger holidays rotate annually.
For winter break, some parents split it into two blocks, giving one parent the first half through Christmas and the other the second half through New Year’s, then alternating the following year. Summer vacation typically needs its own provision allowing each parent a block of uninterrupted time (often one to two weeks) with advance notice requirements.
Communication Between Households
Set out how the child stays in contact with the other parent during custodial time. A defined window for phone or video calls, say a nightly call between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m., keeps the routine intact while preserving the connection. Include virtual visitation by video call, which matters most when parents live far apart.
Right of First Refusal
A right-of-first-refusal clause lets the other parent care for the child before you call a babysitter or leave the child with someone else. Specify the time threshold that triggers it (common choices run from four hours to overnight absences), the notification method (text or call), and a response window, usually one to two hours, for the other parent to accept or decline.
Relocation
California law requires a parent to give at least 45 days’ written notice before moving with the child, to allow time to mediate a new arrangement if needed. Your plan should state how much notice is required, who bears increased travel costs if one parent moves farther away, and what happens to the existing schedule.
Travel and Passport Provisions
For out-of-state or international travel, require the traveling parent to give an itinerary, contact information, and flight details. If there is any concern about a child being taken out of the country, California courts can order significant protections, including surrender of passports, restrictions on international travel without written consent, and mandatory round-trip tickets before departure.
The California Forms That Serve as the Template
California uses standardized Judicial Council forms. Which one you use depends on whether you and the other parent agree or whether you are asking a judge to decide. All are free on the California Courts website, and printed copies are available at your local courthouse self-help center.
FL-355 When You Agree
If both parents have worked out the arrangement together, Form FL-355 (Stipulation and Order for Custody and/or Visitation) is the document you use to present your agreement to the court. A stipulation is a written agreement both parents sign and submit for a judge’s approval. The judge reviews it to confirm the arrangement serves the child’s best interests, then signs it into an order. Judges almost always approve plans that both parents agree to, because two cooperating parents are presumed to know their child’s needs better than a judge reading paperwork.
FL-311 When You Are Requesting Orders
If you are asking the court to make custody orders, either because the other parent will not agree or because you are filing as part of a divorce, Form FL-311 is where you lay out what you are asking for. Section 1 identifies each child by name, birthdate, and age. Section 2 has checkboxes for physical and legal custody, letting you specify joint or sole custody and to which parent. For visitation, the form offers checkboxes for a specific schedule, reasonable visitation, or supervised visitation.
If the form does not have enough space for your schedule, check the “Schedule Attached” box and include your detailed calendar as a separate document. This is common for plans with complex holiday rotations or age-based schedule changes.
FL-341, the Court’s Order Attachment
Form FL-341 is the order attachment the court uses to record its decisions about custody and visitation after a hearing or after approving your stipulation. You will see this form as part of your final paperwork.
Filing and Serving the Other Parent
The filing fee for an initial family law petition or response in California is $435. Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Francisco counties add a local courthouse construction surcharge that pushes the fee slightly higher. If you cannot afford it, submit Form FW-001 (Request to Waive Court Fees). You qualify if your income does not cover both basic needs and court costs, or if you receive certain public benefits.
Many California counties now accept electronic filing through approved platforms, so you may not need to visit the courthouse. Check with your local court to confirm whether e-filing is available for family law cases in your county. You can also file in person at the clerk’s window.
Filing is not enough on its own. You also have to formally deliver copies to the other parent, which California calls service of process. You cannot serve the papers yourself. Someone at least 18 years old who is not a party to the case has to do it, whether that is a friend, relative, county sheriff, or professional process server. The usual method for an initial petition is personal service, where the server physically hands the documents to the other parent. An alternative is service by notice and acknowledgment of receipt, where the server mails the papers with an acknowledgment form and a prepaid return envelope, and the other parent signs and returns the acknowledgment. After service, the server completes a proof of service form that gets filed with the court.
Mandatory Mediation if You Do Not Agree
If custody or visitation is contested, California requires mediation before you can have a hearing in front of a judge. The court sets contested issues for mediation automatically once the paperwork shows the parents do not agree. You do not get to skip this step.
Sessions run through the court’s Family Court Services, with a trained mediator helping both parents work toward an agreement. In most counties mediation is confidential, meaning what you say cannot be used against you in court. In some counties, though, the mediator makes a recommendation to the judge if the parents cannot agree, sometimes called “recommending counseling,” and that recommendation carries real weight. If mediation produces an agreement, you write it up, both parents sign, and you submit it on Form FL-355. If it does not, the case proceeds to a hearing.
Changing the Plan Later
California courts keep jurisdiction to modify custody orders whenever the current arrangement no longer serves the child’s best interests. Common triggers include a parent’s relocation, a significant change in work schedule, substance abuse, the child’s own evolving needs, or one parent consistently failing to follow the existing order.
To request a modification, file a new motion and pay the applicable filing fee (or request a waiver). The mandatory mediation requirement applies again; contested modification requests go through Family Court Services before reaching a judge. If the other parent agrees, you can file a new stipulation on Form FL-355 without a hearing. Judges are generally reluctant to make major changes to stable arrangements because the disruption itself can harm a child, so the more dramatic the change you want, the stronger your evidence of shifted circumstances needs to be.
Keep a conformed copy of your signed order, the version with the court’s stamp, somewhere accessible. Schools, doctors’ offices, and airlines may ask to see it, and having it on hand prevents delays when you need to prove your custody arrangement.