How to Fill Out and File Florida Form 12.995(a): Parenting Plan

Florida Form 12.995(a) is the Supreme Court-approved parenting plan you file in any family law case involving minor children when there are no safety concerns or long-distance issues. You download the current form from the Florida Courts website, complete every numbered section with specific schedules and decisions, sign it in front of a notary public or deputy clerk, and e-file it through the state’s online portal. Once the judge approves it, the plan becomes a binding court order.

A parenting plan is required in every Florida case involving time-sharing with minor children, even when both parents agree on everything.¹ That covers divorce, paternity, and any modification that changes time-sharing. If you don’t file one, the judge creates one at the final hearing based on the evidence.

Make Sure 12.995(a) Is the Right Version

Florida publishes three parenting plan forms, and filing the wrong one can mean starting over. Form 12.995(a) is the standard plan. If you believe the child cannot safely be alone with the other parent, or if supervised visitation is involved, you need Form 12.995(b), the Supervised/Safety-Focused Parenting Plan, which adds sections for naming a supervisor, designating supervised visitation locations, and setting rules such as no firearms during time-sharing and no alcohol within twenty-four hours before the child arrives.² If either parent is relocating, use Form 12.995(c), the Relocation/Long-Distance Parenting Plan.¹

Filling Out the Form

The form is divided into numbered sections. Work through them in order. The fields that cause the most trouble later are the vague ones, so err toward specific dates, times, dollar amounts, and percentages.

Sections I–III: Parents, Children, Jurisdiction

Section I takes each parent’s name, address, phone, and email. If you have a confidential address (common in domestic violence cases), check the “Address Confidential” box rather than leaving the field blank. Section II lists every minor child covered by the plan with full names and dates of birth. Section III addresses jurisdiction, where you state where the children have lived to establish Florida as the home state under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act. A court without proper jurisdiction cannot enter a valid custody order.

Section IV: Parental Responsibility

Florida law presumes both parents share parental responsibility, meaning major decisions are made jointly.³ The form offers three options:

Shared parental responsibility, where both parents decide together on education, non-emergency health care, and other major issues.
Shared parental responsibility with decision-making authority, where both share responsibility overall but one parent gets final say on specific categories you list (education, non-emergency health care, or other areas).
Sole parental responsibility, where one parent makes all major decisions. Courts order this only when shared responsibility would be detrimental to the child, for example when a parent has a qualifying domestic violence conviction.³

Section IV also handles extracurricular activities: whether either parent can register the child independently or whether both must agree, who pays, and how costs are split by percentage. Fill in the percentages. Language like “we’ll work it out” invites future fights.

Section V: Information Sharing

Both parents must have access to school records, medical records, and other important information. This section also asks how you’ll communicate with the child and with each other. Florida law requires the plan to describe the methods and technologies you’ll use.³ A co-parenting app like OurFamilyWizard or TalkingParents creates timestamped, unalterable records that help if disputes end up in court later.

Section VI: Scheduling Ground Rules

Before you build the actual calendar, Section VI sets baseline scheduling rules. Identify which school calendar controls (typically the oldest child’s, the youngest child’s, or a specified school or county calendar), set a deadline each year for obtaining that calendar, and define how “academic break” is measured. Set rules for schedule change requests: how far in advance they must be made and who absorbs the extra costs.

Section VII: The Time-Sharing Schedule

This is the core of the plan. The statute requires the schedule to specify the time each child will spend with each parent in adequate detail.³ Adequate detail means exact days, start times, and end times. Not “every other weekend.” The section breaks into five parts:

Weekday and weekend rotation. Give the start date and the repeating pattern (alternating weeks, 2-2-3, 5-2-2-5, or something else). Identify the day and time each period begins and ends.
Holiday schedule. You can select no separate holiday schedule, agree to holidays as they come, or fill in a chart. The chart lists major holidays (New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and others) and assigns each to a parent for even years, odd years, or every year. Holiday time overrides the regular rotation.
Winter break. Options include splitting the break in half (alternating which parent gets the first half each year), giving the entire break to one parent, or a custom arrangement. You can address Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve separately.
Spring break. Choose whether the regular schedule continues, the break alternates entirely each year, or the time is divided.
Summer break. Same choices. If one parent gets a block of weeks for vacation, specify which weeks and the required advance notice.

At the bottom of Section VII, enter the total number of overnights each child will spend with each parent per year. That number feeds directly into child support calculations, so count carefully.

Section VIII: Transportation, Exchanges, and Travel

Decide who handles transportation: one parent doing all the driving, the parent beginning time-sharing picking up, or the parent ending time-sharing dropping off. Designate exchange locations. If safety is a concern, the court can require exchanges at a neutral safe exchange location.³ Fill in the blank for how many minutes late a parent can be before the exchange is forfeited for that period.

Section VIII also covers travel: notice requirements for domestic trips and out-of-country travel, and whether itineraries must be shared ahead of time. Both parents must consent to a minor child’s passport application.⁴ A parent who cannot appear in person at the passport office completes a notarized Form DS-3053 (Statement of Consent). Spelling out passport consent in the plan heads off a standoff before an international trip.

Section IX: Education

The plan must designate which parent’s address will be used for school-boundary determination and registration.³ Section IX handles this, along with any provisions for private school or homeschooling. Be specific. A reference to “the child’s current school” becomes a problem the moment a parent moves to a different zone.

Section X: Other Legal Designations

This section designates one parent’s address as the child’s primary residence for legal purposes beyond school enrollment, such as voter registration mailings when the child turns eighteen, Medicaid, and other government programs. The parent designated here is not automatically the “custodial parent” for federal tax purposes, which follows its own IRS rules.

Signing, Notarizing, and Filing

If both parents agree on the plan, both must sign in front of a notary public or a deputy clerk.¹ If you don’t have an agreement, either parent can file a proposed plan at any time before the final hearing; the judge may adopt one, combine elements of both, or create a different plan.

Florida requires electronic filing through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal at myflcourtaccess.com. First-time users create an account and select “Self-Represented Litigant” as the filer role.⁵ The document must be signed and notarized before upload. The portal will not accept unsigned forms.

A filing fee applies when the parenting plan accompanies a new petition. For dissolution of marriage, expect approximately $397.50.⁶ Paternity and other family petitions typically run $300 to $400.⁷ If you’re filing an amended plan in an existing case rather than a new petition, the fee is usually much lower or waived. If you cannot afford the fee, apply for a waiver using Florida Family Law Form 12.963.

Serving the Other Parent

Once the other parent has appeared in the case (by filing anything or showing up to a hearing), all later documents, including a proposed parenting plan, must be served by email under the Florida Rules of Judicial Administration.¹ If you’re filing the parenting plan with the original petition, it goes out as part of that initial package through the sheriff or certified process server who handles the petition.

If You Can’t Agree

Florida courts routinely refer contested parenting plan disputes to mediation, and many circuits make it mandatory before you can schedule a hearing. In the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, post-judgment parenting plan disputes are automatically referred to mediation as a prerequisite to getting before a judge.⁸ A judge can waive mediation when there is a history of domestic violence that would compromise the process, or when circumstances call for an expedited hearing.

Costs vary. Some circuits offer court-connected mediation on a sliding-scale fee. Private family mediators charge by the hour, with costs split between the parties unless the court orders otherwise. If mediation produces an agreement, you incorporate the terms into Form 12.995(a), sign it, and file. If it fails, each parent files a proposed plan and the judge decides at the final hearing.

Changing the Plan Later

Once approved, the parenting plan is a court order. Changing it requires going back to court. The parent asking for a modification must show a substantial and material change in circumstances that has occurred since the current plan was entered, and that the proposed change serves the child’s best interests.³ Both prongs must be met. A change by itself isn’t enough if the child is doing well under the current arrangement.

Changes courts have found substantial enough include a parent developing a substance abuse problem, a major work-schedule shift that makes the current rotation impossible, or a parent who previously lived more than 50 miles away moving within 50 miles. Florida law specifically recognizes that closing a long-distance gap can itself be a substantial change warranting a new time-sharing schedule.³ Disliking the current schedule or having minor disagreements won’t meet the threshold.

If a planned move is at least 50 miles from the residence at the time of the last order and lasts at least 60 consecutive days (not counting vacations or temporary absences for education or health care), Florida treats it as a relocation under Section 61.13001, which has its own petition-and-objection process.⁹ In that situation you’d file a new plan using Form 12.995(c) rather than 12.995(a).

1
Florida Courts. Instructions for Florida Supreme Court Approved Family Law Form 12.995(a) – Parenting Plan
2
Florida Courts. Instructions for Florida Supreme Court Approved Family Law Form 12.995(b) – Supervised/Safety Focused Parenting Plan
3
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.13 – Support of Children; Parenting and Time-Sharing; Powers of Court
4
U.S. Embassy & Consulates. DS-11 / DS-3053 – Wizard Results
5
Florida Courts. Filing Your Forms
6
Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers. How Do I File for a Divorce?
7
Pasco County Clerk, FL. Family Court Fees and Costs
8
Florida Courts. Administrative Order S-2024-057 – Family Mediation
9
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 61.13001 – Parental Relocation With a Child