A Kansas parenting plan is the court order that spells out how you and the other parent will share decision-making, where your child will live, and how parenting time will work after a divorce or paternity case. Kansas courts will not finalize custody without one, and every case must include either a jointly agreed plan or two competing proposed plans for the judge to choose between. Once a judge signs it, the plan carries the full force of a court order.
What Must Be in the Plan
State law sets a floor of four elements every permanent parenting plan has to contain:
- A legal custody designation, either joint or sole.
- A parenting time schedule saying when the child is with each parent.
- A dispute resolution procedure so ordinary disagreements do not require a new court filing.
- Military deployment provisions, if either parent is a service member, covering custody and parenting time during deployment, mobilization, temporary duty, or an unaccompanied tour.1Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 23-3213 – Permanent Parenting Plan; Objectives; General Outline, Provisions
A plan that stops at those four items is legally valid. It is also usually the wrong choice, because bare-bones plans leave gray areas that turn into fights.
Details Worth Adding
The statute lists topics a detailed plan can address, and experienced practitioners generally cover all of them:
- A holiday and vacation schedule with specific start and end times. Holiday dates override the regular weekly schedule, so precision matters.
- Weekend rules for in-service days and three-day weekends: do they follow the regular rotation or count as holiday time?
- How education, health, and welfare decisions get made. Will one parent decide school enrollment, elective medical procedures, and extracurriculars, or must both agree?
- How both parents receive information about grades, medical visits, and school events.
- Ground rules for relocation.
- Phone and electronic access with the other parent during off-time.
- Transportation for exchanges: who drives, where the handoff happens, and how costs are split.
- Dispute resolution methods such as mediation, co-parenting counseling, or a parenting coordinator before anyone files a motion.1Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 23-3213 – Permanent Parenting Plan; Objectives; General Outline, Provisions
A right of first refusal clause is another common addition. It gives the off-duty parent the chance to watch the child before a babysitter steps in. Plans that include this provision usually limit it to overnight absences so short errands do not trigger it.
Legal Custody and Residency Explained
Kansas splits the custody question into two separate decisions.
Legal custody is about decision-making authority over the child’s health, education, and welfare. Joint legal custody is the statutory default. A judge will only award sole legal custody if equal decision-making is not in the child’s best interests, and the reasons have to go on the record.2Kansas State Legislature. Kansas Code 23-3206 – Legal Custodial Arrangements Even a parent without sole legal custody still has the right to access school and medical records unless a court order says otherwise.
Residency is where the child actually lives. The statute allows three arrangements: a standard residency order with the child living with one or both parents on an approved schedule; divided residency, which splits siblings between households and is used rarely; and, if neither parent is fit, temporary placement with a grandparent, other close relative, or another suitable person.3Justia Law. Kansas Code 23-3207 – Residential Arrangements
The statute does not use terms like “primary custody” or “50/50 custody,” even though people say them all the time. A residency order simply describes the schedule the court approves.
How Judges Decide What’s in the Child’s Best Interests
Every custody and residency decision turns on the child’s best interests, and the statute lists 18 factors a judge must weigh. The ones that most often drive outcomes include each parent’s involvement in day-to-day caregiving before and after separation, the parents’ and child’s preferences, the child’s adjustment to home and school, relationships with siblings, each parent’s willingness to support the child’s bond with the other parent, evidence of domestic abuse, the parents’ ability to cooperate, work schedules and the location of homes and school, and whether anyone in either household is a registered sex offender or has been convicted of child abuse.4Justia Law. Kansas Code 23-3203 – Factors Considered in Determination of Legal Custody, Residency and Parenting Time of a Child
No factor automatically outweighs another. Judges take the willingness-to-support-the-other-parent factor seriously; a parent who badmouths the other or blocks contact is at a real disadvantage.
Filing the Plan
The Kansas Judicial Council publishes free parenting plan templates that meet all statutory requirements, available on the council’s website and at the Judicial Branch self-help center.5Kansas Judicial Council. Establishing Parenting Time The forms are filed inside an existing divorce or parentage case, not as a standalone action.6Kansas Judicial Council. Child Support and Parenting Time
If you and the other parent agree on everything, you submit a single permanent parenting plan signed by both of you. If you disagree, each parent files a separate proposed plan for the judge to review.1Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 23-3213 – Permanent Parenting Plan; Objectives; General Outline, Provisions The completed plan goes to the district court clerk in the county where your case is pending. A parenting plan filed as part of a new divorce or paternity case carries a $195 filing fee.7Kansas Judicial Branch. District Court Filing Fees If you cannot afford the fee, you can file a poverty affidavit asking the court to waive all or part of the cost.
An agreed parenting plan is presumed to be in the child’s best interests. A judge can override that presumption, but only by making specific findings explaining why the plan is not good for the child. In a contested case, the court can order mediation at any point.8Kansas Legislature. Kansas Code 23-3502 – When Ordered; Appointment and Qualifications of Mediator If mediation fails, the judge holds a hearing, weighs the proposed plans against the best interests factors, and issues a final order.
If a Parent Is in the Military
A deployment, mobilization, temporary duty assignment, or unaccompanied tour cannot by itself justify a permanent change to custody or parenting time. Any modification entered during a service member’s absence must be a temporary order that names the deployment as the reason.9Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 23-3217 – Child Custody and Parenting Time for Parents Deployed by the Military; Modification of Orders; Hearing
When the service member returns, the court has to schedule a review hearing within 30 days of the parent’s motion. At that hearing, the non-deploying parent carries the burden of proving that restoring the pre-deployment arrangement is no longer in the child’s best interests. Building the deployment provisions into the parenting plan from the start avoids a scramble when orders arrive.9Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 23-3217 – Child Custody and Parenting Time for Parents Deployed by the Military; Modification of Orders; Hearing
Safety and Domestic Violence Provisions
When a court finds evidence of a pattern of physical or emotional abuse, stalking, or sexual assault, it can order the offending parent to complete a certified batterer intervention program and follow the program’s recommendations before receiving unsupervised parenting time.4Justia Law. Kansas Code 23-3203 – Factors Considered in Determination of Legal Custody, Residency and Parenting Time of a Child
A parent with a protection order against the other parent can request supervised exchanges at a child exchange and visitation center. If the other parent has been convicted of a crime against the child, the custodial parent is exempt from the standard relocation notice requirements.10Kansas State Legislature. Kansas Code 23-3222 – Change in Child’s Residence; Notice; Effect; Exceptions
Changing the Plan Later
Kansas allows modifications to custody, residency, child support, and parenting time when a material change in circumstances justifies it. A move, a job change, a child’s evolving needs, or a parent’s new living situation can qualify. You file a motion in the same court that issued the original order, and the judge applies the same best interests factors used the first time.4Justia Law. Kansas Code 23-3203 – Factors Considered in Determination of Legal Custody, Residency and Parenting Time of a Child Old issues that were already decided are not up for relitigation unless something has genuinely changed.
Relocation has its own rules. If either parent plans to move the child to a new home or take the child out of Kansas for more than 90 days, that parent must send written notice to the other parent at least 30 days before the move, by restricted mail with return receipt requested. Skipping this notice is treated as indirect civil contempt, and the court can order the moving parent to pay the other parent’s attorney fees and related expenses. The move itself can support a modification, and the court will look at how the move affects the child, the other parent’s rights under the plan, and the cost of exercising those rights.10Kansas State Legislature. Kansas Code 23-3222 – Change in Child’s Residence; Notice; Effect; Exceptions
When the Other Parent Won’t Follow It
The most common remedy is a motion for contempt. You file it with the court, explain the violation, and ask for relief. If the judge finds a willful violation, penalties can include attorney fees, makeup parenting time, and, in serious cases, jail. Kansas also has an expedited procedure for enforcing parenting time that moves faster than a standard motion.
Calling the police during an exchange dispute rarely helps. Officers generally will not do more than keep the peace unless a crime is happening. Court orders get enforced through the court. Document every violation in writing, with dates, times, and copies of any messages. That record becomes the evidence if you end up in front of a judge.
Who Claims the Child on Taxes
Your parenting plan indirectly controls who claims the child as a dependent on federal tax returns, which determines eligibility for the child tax credit and other benefits. Under IRS rules, the custodial parent is the parent the child lived with for the greater number of nights during the year. If nights are exactly equal, the IRS treats the parent with the higher adjusted gross income as the custodial parent.11IRS. Claiming a Child as a Dependent When Parents Are Divorced, Separated, or Live Apart
The custodial parent can sign IRS Form 8332 to release the dependency claim to the other parent for one year or several. The release transfers the child tax credit (worth at least $2,200 per child as of 2025, with inflation adjustments starting in 2026) but not the earned income credit, the dependent care credit, or head of household filing status, which always stay with the custodial parent.11IRS. Claiming a Child as a Dependent When Parents Are Divorced, Separated, or Live Apart If your parenting plan alternates the dependency claim, reference Form 8332 in the plan and sign the form each year it applies. A parenting plan alone does not override IRS rules; the signed form does.