Long-Distance Parenting Plan in Washington: Notice, Schedule, Travel

Setting up a long-distance parenting plan in Washington starts with a legal step most parents underestimate: if you already have a court-ordered parenting plan and you want to move your child outside the current school district, you must give at least 60 days’ written notice to everyone with court-ordered residential time or visitation before you go.¹ The notice goes on the state’s official form, FL Relocate 701, and the parenting plan you end up with, whether agreed or ordered, has to cover a residential schedule, decision-making authority, dispute resolution, and the practical realities of distance.²

Give Notice Before You Move

The relocation notice is not optional and it is not a courtesy. Washington’s statute lists exactly what it must contain: an address where you can receive legal papers during the objection period, your reasons for moving, the intended new address (or as much as you know), the new home phone number, the name and address of the child’s new school or daycare if applicable, the planned date of the move, and a proposed revised residential schedule written in parenting plan format. The notice must also carry a bolded warning that the relocation will be permitted unless the other parent files an objection within 30 days. Without that warning, a court can find the notice non-compliant.³

Serve the notice personally or by any form of mail that requires a return receipt.⁴ Certified mail with return receipt requested is the most common route. Keep proof of service. You will need it if the other parent does not object and you want the court to enter your proposed schedule.

A parent who skips notice altogether faces real consequences. The court can order the child returned and require the non-compliant parent to pay the other side’s attorney fees.¹

Emergency Exception

If you are fleeing domestic violence, entering a domestic violence shelter, or facing a clear, immediate, and unreasonable risk to your or your child’s health or safety, you can move first and serve the notice within 21 days after the move.⁵ Notice is still required; only the timeline shifts.

What Happens After You Serve Notice

The other parent has 30 days to file an objection with the court and serve it on you, again personally or by return-receipt mail. If it comes by mail, three days are added for delivery.⁴

If no objection is filed on time, the relocation is permitted. Any party with residential time can file the notice and proof of service with the court after the 30 days expire and get an order reflecting the proposed schedule without a hearing.⁶ This is why the residential schedule you attach to the notice matters so much. If the other parent lets the deadline pass, your proposal becomes the default. Draft it as if a judge will sign it, because a judge probably will.

If the other parent objects, the case moves to a contested relocation proceeding. The court can enter temporary orders during that period, including one restraining the move or ordering the child returned if you already moved. A judge deciding a contested relocation weighs 11 statutory factors, including the strength of the child’s relationships with each parent, the reasons for and against the move, the impact on the child’s schooling and wellbeing, and the feasibility of alternative arrangements.⁷ One protection to know: the court cannot ask whether you would abandon the move if the request were denied.

What the Parenting Plan Must Contain

Whether you and the other parent negotiate the plan or a judge imposes one, every Washington parenting plan needs three categories of provisions. All of it goes on the state’s official form, FL All Family 140.⁸

Residential Schedule

The schedule spells out where the child lives on each day of the year, including holidays, birthdays, school breaks, and summer vacation.⁹ Long-distance schedules usually give the non-residential parent longer, less frequent blocks rather than every-other-weekend visits. A common pattern is most of summer, alternating winter and spring breaks, and one or two extended weekends during the school year when travel makes sense.

Holiday coverage rewards specificity. Alternating Thanksgiving and Christmas by year is easy; three-day weekends, the child’s birthday, and each parent’s birthday are the gaps that turn into disputes.

Decision-Making Authority

The plan must assign responsibility for major decisions about education, healthcare, and religious upbringing to one parent or both.⁹ Distance makes joint decision-making harder on routine matters. Many long-distance plans give day-to-day educational and medical decisions to the parent with primary residential time and reserve joint agreement for major decisions such as surgery, school changes, or enrollment in special programs.

Dispute Resolution

Every plan must include a way to resolve disagreements outside of court, unless the court has restricted this because of domestic violence or other safety concerns. Options are mediation, arbitration, or counseling. The statute prefers carrying out the existing plan during any dispute, and a parent who misuses or frustrates the process without good reason can be ordered to pay the other parent’s attorney fees.⁹

The Practical Terms Distance Requires

The three statutory pieces are the floor. A plan that stops there will generate arguments across state lines every time. Build in the specifics.

Travel and Costs

State who pays for travel and how. Common approaches include splitting airfare equally, having each parent cover one direction of each trip, or assigning costs to the parent who moved. Name who books the flights, whether direct flights are required when available, and where handoffs happen if driving.

If the child will fly as an unaccompanied minor, work around the airline’s rules. Most major carriers require unaccompanied minor service for children ages 5 through 14 and restrict younger children (ages 5 to 7) to nonstop flights only. The fee is typically around $150 each way on top of the ticket, and connecting flights are limited to certain hub airports.¹⁰ Policies vary by airline. A schedule that says the child flies every other Friday breaks down if no nonstop route exists and the child is six.

Phone and Video Contact

Set a regular schedule for calls between the child and the distant parent. Virtual contact supplements in-person time; it does not replace it. Specificity is what keeps this from becoming a fight. “Regular phone calls” invites disagreement. “Video call every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time” does not. Say which parent is responsible for making the child available, what happens when a call is missed, and which platform you will use. Keep the terms symmetric so the residential parent has the same rights during the distant parent’s time.

Right of First Refusal

A right-of-first-refusal clause requires the parent with the child to offer any extended childcare time to the other parent before calling a sitter or family member. This matters less in a long-distance plan than a local one, since the distant parent usually can’t accept on short notice. If you include it, set a realistic threshold. Four hours makes sense in the same city; 48 or 72 hours may be more appropriate across state lines.

Which State’s Court Controls

Washington has adopted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, which uses “home state” as the primary basis for jurisdiction. The home state is where the child lived with a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before the custody proceeding began.¹¹

If a Washington court entered your parenting plan, that court keeps jurisdiction as long as at least one parent or the child still lives in Washington. Moving to another state and filing there for a fresh custody order does not work; the new state’s courts must defer to the original. The federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act reinforces this rule and prohibits states from modifying another state’s custody order when the original state retains jurisdiction.¹² In practice, the relocating parent may need to travel back to Washington for hearings or hire Washington counsel. Budget for that.

Passports and International Travel

If travel abroad is part of the picture, address it in the plan. Federal law requires both parents to appear in person and consent when applying for a passport for a child under 16.¹³ A single parent can apply alone only with a court order granting sole legal custody or specifically authorizing the passport, a signed notarized consent from the other parent, or evidence that the other parent’s rights have been terminated.¹⁴

The plan should state whether one parent needs written permission from the other for international travel, set a deadline for providing that permission (30 days out is common), and specify what to exchange, such as itineraries and emergency contacts. If there is any risk of a parent taking the child abroad and not returning, the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction provides a legal mechanism for return, but only if both countries are parties. Cases are handled through each country’s designated Central Authority rather than by the convention directly.¹⁵

Claiming the Child on Taxes

Who claims the child is one of the most overlooked pieces of a long-distance plan. Under federal tax law, the “custodial parent” is the one with whom the child lives for the greater portion of the calendar year, and that parent has the default right to claim the child as a dependent.¹⁶ In most long-distance arrangements, that is the parent with primary residential time.

The custodial parent can sign IRS Form 8332 to release the claim to the noncustodial parent for specific years or on an ongoing basis. The release covers the child tax credit (worth up to $2,200 per child for 2026) and the credit for other dependents. It does not transfer the earned income credit, the child and dependent care credit, or head of household filing status; those stay with the custodial parent regardless of any agreement.¹⁷ A divorce decree or separation agreement alone is no longer enough. If your plan says the noncustodial parent claims the child in certain years, the custodial parent still has to sign Form 8332 each of those years for the IRS to honor it.

Filing the Plan

Once the plan is agreed or a judge issues one, the completed FL All Family 140 form and supporting documents go to the Superior Court clerk. Filing to establish or modify a parenting plan requires a fee. In King County, modifying a decree originally entered in that county costs $56; modifying an out-of-county decree costs $310.¹⁸ Fees vary by county.

Fee waivers are available. You qualify automatically if your household income is at or below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines, or if you receive benefits like TANF, SSI, or food stamps. Even above that threshold, you can request a waiver by showing that basic living expenses leave you unable to pay.¹⁹

A judge or court commissioner then reviews and signs the plan. When both parents agree, this is usually a paperwork step without a hearing. The clerk stamps and dates copies, and the conformed copy each parent receives is the proof of the court order you rely on going forward.

Changing the Plan Later

A long-distance plan is not permanent. Children grow, jobs change, and what worked at five may not work at twelve. To modify an existing plan, Washington law requires you to show a substantial change in circumstances since the plan was entered and that the change serves the child’s best interests. A judge will not modify the residential schedule because one parent prefers something different.²⁰

The court weighs factors similar to those used to build the plan originally: each parent’s relationship with the child, ability to handle parenting responsibilities, the child’s emotional needs and developmental level, connections to school and community, and the wishes of a child mature enough to express a reasoned preference. The relationship factor carries the most weight. A modification request filed in bad faith can result in the filing parent paying the other side’s attorney fees and court costs.²⁰

Common triggers for modification include a child starting school (shifting the schedule onto the school calendar), another relocation, a significant work-schedule change, or new needs the original plan does not accommodate. If you and the other parent agree, you can file a stipulated order and skip a contested hearing.

1
Washington Law Help. Relocation Guide – Moving with Children
2
Washington State Courts. Court Forms – Notice of Intent to Move with Children (Relocation)
3
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 26.09.440 – Notice Contents and Delivery
4
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 26.09.480 – Objection to Relocation or Proposed Revised Residential Schedule
5
King County Superior Court. Notify the Other Parent You Want to Move with the Children
6
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 26.09.500 – Failure to Object
7
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 26.09.520 – Basis for Determination
8
Washington State Courts. FL All Family 140 – Parenting Plan
9
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 26.09.184 – Permanent Parenting Plan
10
American Airlines. Unaccompanied Minors
11
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code Chapter 26.27 – Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1738A – Full Faith and Credit Given to Child Custody Determinations
13
U.S. Department of State. Apply for a Child’s Passport Under 16
14
eCFR. 22 CFR 51.28 – Minors
15
HCCH. Child Abduction Section
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 152 – Dependent Defined
17
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8332, Release/Revocation of Release of Claim to Exemption for Child by Custodial Parent
18
King County Superior Court. Superior Court Clerk’s Office Fee and Payment Information
19
Washington State Courts. GR 34 – Waiver of Court and Clerk’s Fees and Charges
20
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 26.09.187 – Criteria for Establishing Permanent Parenting Plan