Co-parenting with your ex-spouse is one of the most stressful things a person can do, but for most parents, it comes as a relief that they no longer have to live under the same roof with their ex-spouse and their ex-spouse’s relatives or feel a flood of insecurity when their ex texts someone, wondering if it is the new beloved who captured the ex’s attention and broke up the marriage. Drafting a parenting plan is a major challenge because it means that you can no longer play things by ear. If your parenting plan says that you must pick up your children from your ex’s house every Saturday morning at 9:00, that means no more staying out on Friday nights until the breakfast crowd shows up at the diner. At least, though, a parenting plan gives you a predictable schedule, and you find a new normal. What happens when something upends your new normal family situation? What if your ex-spouse decides to move out of Arizona, or what if you must move to another state because of work or family obligations? If you are co-parenting your children with your former spouse or former partner, and one parent plans to move out of Arizona soon, contact a Mesa child custody lawyer.
Parenting Plans are Supposed to Be Permanent, but Sometimes Life Has Other Plans
The family courts of Arizona issue a parenting plan every time a couple who has minor children together gets a divorce or every time a parent who has never been married asks the court to order his or her ex-partner to pay child support. The parenting plan outlines all the rules, except the financial ones, for co-parenting. It states which parent will be with the children on which days of the year and how transportation of the children from one parent’s residence to the other will work. This co-parenting schedule includes plans for holidays and school breaks, as well as for regular school weeks.
Ideally, the parenting plan stays in place until the youngest child turns 18, but parenting plans are always modifiable, and many divorced parents modify their parenting plans at some point during their children’s childhood. For example, if the children are babies when the parents divorce, they will probably need to modify the parenting plan once the children begin school. Likewise, many families modify their parenting plans when their children are in high school and begin driving or working part-time jobs.
Modifying the Parenting Plan When One Parent Relocates
Most parents set the terms of their parenting plans during mediation; they work out a schedule that is feasible for their family. Every parenting plan is unique, based on the relative location of the parents’ homes to each other and to the children’s school, as well as on the parents’ work schedules and the availability of extended family members to assist with childcare. When the parents reach an impasse during parenting plan mediation, the court will hold a hearing, and the judge will decide on the provisions about which the parents were unable to agree. The court always makes its decisions based on the children’s best interests, meaning that the parenting plan should be conducive to the children’s physical and emotional safety and to the children having a stable relationship with both parents.
A modification to the parenting plan can arise not only from a change in the children’s situation but also from a change in the situation of one of the parents. For example, a divorced parent can modify the parenting plan if he or she plans to relocate. According to Arizona law, the parents must petition the court to sign off on a modified parenting plan if one parent moves out of Arizona or if the parent, while remaining within Arizona, plans to move more than 100 miles away from the other parent. These are some reasons a parent might move:
- The parent’s employer has transferred them to another work location.
- The parent has found a job outside Arizona that pays better than any available job in Arizona.
- Out of financial necessity or caregiving obligations, the parent is moving to be closer to relatives.
- The parent has remarried, and the new spouse must relocate for work or family reasons.
The modified parenting plan must account for how the parents will transport the child across the greater distance. Will the child travel by airplane from one parent’s house to the other’s? Which parent will undertake the road trip to drive the children to the other parent’s house? Will they meet at a central location to transfer the children? The child support order based on the new parenting plan must account for the increased transportation expenses. In general, parenting plans where the parents had nearly equal parenting time before the relocation require more extensive modification before the move than those where one parent had many more days of parenting time per year than the other. Even if the court does not stop your ex from moving, the new parenting plan still guarantees you court-ordered parenting time. If your ex does not follow the new parenting plan, you can petition the court to hold your ex in contempt.
What if the Parents Disagree About the Plans to Relocate?
If your ex-spouse wants to move out of Arizona, but you think the move will be disruptive to your children and their relationship with you, you have the right to ask the court to intervene. The instances where the court orders a parent to remain in Arizona are rare; the court cannot deny the reality of economic necessities and extended family obligations. The court will, however, set a parenting plan that it determines to be in the best interest of the children. Both parents have the right to present their requests for how they want the parenting plan to be, and the court will decide.
Contact Modern Law About Long-Distance Co-Parenting
A family law attorney can help you request to modify your parenting plan if you are moving out of Arizona. Contact Modern Law in Mesa, Arizona, to discuss your case.
