RJSR
Illinois child-custody cases are decided through the allocation of parental responsibilities and parenting time.
RJSR represents parents in divorce, parentage, post-judgment, relocation, and other disputes involving children. Our attorneys have over 100 years of combined matrimonial and family-law experience serving clients throughout Will, DuPage, Kendall and Grundy Counties.
People still commonly use the phrase child custody, but Illinois law now addresses these cases through the allocation of parental responsibilities. That includes two related but distinct issues: significant decision-making responsibilities and parenting time.
Under 750 ILCS 5/602.5, significant decision-making concerns long-term issues involving a child’s education, health care, religious upbringing, and extracurricular activities. The court may allocate different subjects to one parent or to both parents jointly, depending on the child’s best interests.
The best-interests analysis is fact specific. The statute directs the court to consider all relevant circumstances, including the child’s needs and adjustment, the parents’ ability to cooperate, past participation in significant decisions, prior agreements or patterns of conduct, safety concerns, and each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent. Conduct that does not affect a parent’s relationship with the child is not considered for this purpose.
Under 750 ILCS 5/602.7, parenting time is also allocated according to the child’s best interests. Illinois does not use an automatic equal-time formula. Instead, the court considers the statutory factors and the particular circumstances of the child and parents.
Those factors include the wishes of the parents; the child’s wishes when age and maturity make them relevant; the parents’ recent caretaking history; the child’s relationships and adjustment to home, school, and community; the parties’ schedules and the distance between their homes; the child’s needs; the parents’ ability to cooperate; and issues involving violence, abuse, endangerment, or other safety concerns.
During each parent’s parenting time, that parent ordinarily makes routine decisions and emergency decisions affecting the child’s health and safety. Significant long-term decisions are governed by the allocation of decision-making responsibilities.
750 ILCS 5/602.10 generally requires parents to file proposed parenting plans within 120 days after service or filing of a petition for allocation of parental responsibilities, subject to statutory exceptions and extensions for good cause. Parents may submit an agreed plan, or separate proposed plans if they cannot agree.
A parenting plan addresses the allocation of significant decisions, the child’s living arrangements and parenting-time schedule, transportation and exchanges, communication, future dispute resolution, and other practical terms. Illinois law generally requires mediation to assist parents with formulating, modifying, or implementing a parenting plan unless the court finds an impediment to mediation.
Illinois law begins with the presumption that both parents are fit. Restrictions are not imposed simply because parents disagree or because one parent would prefer less contact with the other. Under 750 ILCS 5/603.10, after a hearing the court may order restrictions necessary to protect a child when the statutory serious-endangerment or significant-emotional-impairment standard is proved. Restrictions can include supervised parenting time, protected exchanges, limits on communication or proximity, substance-related conditions, treatment requirements, or other safeguards.
A proposed move can have major consequences for an existing parenting arrangement. 750 ILCS 5/609.2 establishes specific procedures for qualifying relocations, including written notice requirements and a best-interests analysis if the parents do not agree. Parents considering a move should address relocation issues before changing the child’s primary residence.
Parenting time can affect child-support calculations, but the allocation of parental responsibilities is not decided by the amount of support one parent pays. For the financial side of a parenting case, see our Illinois Child Support page and Illinois Child Support Calculator.
Parenting disputes can arise in a divorce, a parentage case, or after an earlier judgment has been entered. Modification and enforcement issues may require a different legal analysis from the initial allocation. See our Divorce & Legal Separation and Post-Decree Proceedings pages for related issues.
The right parenting arrangement depends on the child and the facts of the family. RJSR represents parents in negotiated parenting plans, mediation, contested allocation hearings, relocation disputes, restrictions, and post-judgment parenting litigation.
