# Florida parenting plans and the equal time-sharing presumption

> Florida time-sharing after 2023: equal time is now presumed. How parenting plans work, the 20 best interest factors, and how to rebut the presumption.

Florida stopped saying custody years ago. The statute talks about a parenting plan, shared parental responsibility, and a time-sharing schedule, and those are three separate decisions that people constantly collapse into one.

Then in 2023 the biggest change in decades arrived: equal time-sharing is now what the law presumes.

## Does Florida presume 50/50 custody?

Yes. [Section 61.13(2)(c)1.](https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/61.13) states that unless otherwise provided in the section or agreed by the parties, there is a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing of a minor child is in the best interests of the minor child, and that to rebut it a party must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that equal time-sharing is not in the child's best interests.

The same subsection adds a requirement judges take seriously. Except when the parties agree on a schedule and the court approves it, the court must evaluate all of the statutory factors and make specific written findings of fact when creating or modifying a time-sharing schedule.

So a Florida judge cannot simply announce a schedule. They have to walk the factors on the record.

## What is shared parental responsibility in Florida?

Decision-making, and it is separate from the schedule. The court must order that parental responsibility be shared by both parents unless it finds that shared parental responsibility would be detrimental to the child.

In deciding detriment, section 61.13(2)(c)2. directs the court to consider evidence of domestic violence, whether a parent has reasonable cause to believe they or the children are in imminent danger of domestic or sexual violence by the other parent, whether a parent has reasonable cause to believe the children are in imminent danger of abuse, abandonment, or neglect, and any other relevant factors.

When responsibility is shared, the court can still give one parent ultimate authority over specific areas, like education or health care, or divide those areas between the parents. That is often the practical middle ground when two people cannot agree but neither is unfit.

Florida also protects access to records. Records and information about a minor child, including medical, dental, and school records, may not be denied to either parent unless a court order specifically revokes that right.

## What goes in a Florida parenting plan?

A parenting plan is a required document, not an optional attachment. Florida publishes approved forms for it, and the plan has to describe how the parents will share the daily tasks of raising the child, the time-sharing schedule, who is responsible for health care and school-related matters, and the methods and technologies the parents will use to communicate with the child.

If you and your co-parent agree, you file a signed and notarized plan. If you do not, each side files a proposed plan and the judge builds one, with the written findings above.

Be specific. "As agreed between the parents" works right up until it does not, and then there is nothing to enforce. Exchange times, exchange locations, holiday rotation, summer schedules, and who gets the child on a teacher planning day all belong in the document.

## What factors does a Florida court consider for time-sharing?

Twenty of them, listed in section 61.13(3), and they are more granular than most states':

- Each parent's demonstrated capacity to encourage a close parent-child relationship with the other parent, honor the schedule, and be reasonable about changes
- The anticipated division of parental responsibilities, including how much is delegated to third parties
- Each parent's capacity to act on the child's needs rather than their own
- How long the child has lived in a stable environment and the value of continuity
- The geographic viability of the plan, with attention to school-age children and travel time
- The moral fitness of the parents
- The mental and physical health of the parents
- The home, school, and community record of the child
- The reasonable preference of the child, if the court finds the child mature enough to express one
- Each parent's knowledge of the child's friends, teachers, doctors, activities, and favorite things
- Each parent's capacity to keep a consistent routine for homework, meals, and bedtime
- Each parent's capacity to communicate with the other parent and present a unified front on major issues
- Evidence of domestic violence, sexual violence, child abuse, abandonment, or neglect, which the court must specifically acknowledge in writing when it considers it
- Evidence that a parent knowingly gave the court false information about any of those actions
- The parenting tasks each parent customarily performed before and during the litigation
- Each parent's involvement in school and extracurricular activities
- Each parent's capacity to keep the child's environment free from substance abuse
- Each parent's capacity to protect the child from the litigation, by not discussing it with the child, not sharing documents about it, and not disparaging the other parent
- The developmental stage and needs of the child, and each parent's capacity to meet them
- Any other relevant factor

Two of those are worth flagging because they are easy to lose without meaning to. The first factor, encouraging the other parent's relationship, and the one about protecting the child from the litigation, are both about your behavior during the case rather than before it.

## How do you rebut the equal time-sharing presumption in Florida?

By evidence, at a preponderance standard, tied to those factors. What actually moves a Florida judge:

- **Geography.** A plan that puts a nine year old in a car for 90 minutes each school morning fails the geographic viability factor on its own.
- **Work schedules.** A parent on nights or a rotating offshore rotation may not be able to exercise equal time whatever they want.
- **The pre-filing pattern.** The factor about parenting tasks customarily performed before litigation is where a long history of one parent doing the school runs carries weight.
- **Violence, abuse, or substance abuse.** These reach both the schedule and shared parental responsibility.
- **Conflict at exchanges.** A record of exchanges going badly supports a schedule with fewer of them.

Wanting more time is not evidence. Neither is the other parent's new partner.

## When can a Florida parent move away with a child?

When the move is at least 50 miles and lasts at least 60 days, it is a relocation and it has its own rules. [Section 61.13001](https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/61.13001) defines relocation as a change in the principal residence of a parent from where they lived at the time of the last order or the filing of the pending action, of at least 50 miles from that residence, for at least 60 consecutive days, not counting a temporary absence for vacation, education, or health care.

If everyone entitled to time-sharing agrees, you can sign a written agreement that reflects consent, defines a schedule for the nonrelocating parent, and describes transportation arrangements, then have the court ratify it. If they do not agree, you file a petition to relocate and the court decides.

Moving first and asking later is the worst available option, and courts treat it that way.

## How do you change a Florida parenting plan?

By showing a substantial and material change in circumstances since the last order, plus that the modification is in the child's best interests. Both halves are required.

Florida added a specific rule here in the 2023 reform. If the parents were living more than 50 miles apart when the last time-sharing order was entered and one parent moves within 50 miles of the other, that move may itself be treated as a substantial and material change in circumstances, so long as the modification is in the child's best interests. A parent who moves closer can now ask for more time on that basis alone.

Remember that the schedule and the money are linked. Once a parent has at least 20 percent of the year's overnights, the [child support calculation](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/florida/child-support) changes materially, so a time-sharing modification usually needs a support modification alongside it.

## Do both parents have to take a parenting class in Florida?

Yes, if there are minor children. [Section 61.21](https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/61.21) requires all parties to a dissolution with minor children to complete the Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course before the court enters a final judgment. The course is a minimum of four hours and is approved by the Department of Children and Families.

The deadlines are tight. The petitioner must complete the course within 45 days after filing the petition, and every other party within 45 days after being served. The court can excuse a party for good cause, and each party has to file proof of completion.

If your children have identified special needs or emotional concerns, the statute requires you to pick a version of the course tailored to that.

It is four hours, it can be done online, and it blocks your final judgment if it is not done. Do it in week one, and use the time in the [timeline](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/florida/process-timeline) for things that actually take work.

Source: https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/florida/parenting-plans-and-time-sharing