How to Make a Parenting Plan in Pennsylvania
A parenting plan is the most consequential document you'll produce in a Pennsylvania custody case. It defines where your child lives, when they're with each parent, who makes the major decisions, and how holidays, vacations, and daily logistics work for years to come. Get the details right and you have a roadmap that minimizes future conflict. Leave gaps and you're back in court — paying for conference time to resolve things you could have addressed upfront.
Under 23 Pa.C.S. § 5331, courts can require both parents to submit proposed parenting plans in contested custody cases. Even in amicable situations, a detailed written plan is essential — it's what the judge signs to create a binding court order.
What the Law Requires
Section 5331(b) specifies five categories that every parenting plan must address:
1. Physical custody schedule — a detailed calendar of regular weekly parenting time, including specific transition days and times, transportation arrangements, and exchange locations.
2. Holidays and vacations — a specific rotation for major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Easter, July 4th, Memorial Day, Labor Day), school breaks (winter and spring), and summer vacation periods.
3. Educational and religious involvement — how major school decisions are made (enrollment, tutoring, special education), access to academic records, and participation in religious activities.
4. Healthcare protocols — who selects doctors and dentists, how emergency care decisions are made, sharing of medical records and insurance information, and decisions about therapy or medication.
5. Childcare and third-party supervision — provisions for daily childcare, babysitting, and who can be left in charge of the child when the custodial parent is unavailable.
These are the statutory minimums. A good parenting plan goes further.
Provisions Most Parents Forget
The plans that actually prevent future conflict include provisions that § 5331 doesn't explicitly require but that experienced family courts expect:
Right of First Refusal — when the custodial parent can't be with the child during their scheduled time (work trip, social event), do they have to offer that time to the other parent before calling a babysitter? If so, how much advance notice is required, and for absences of what minimum length? This is a common source of post-decree disputes, and having it spelled out eliminates the argument.
Communication protocols — how the parents communicate about the child. Many high-conflict orders restrict communication to written formats through a co-parenting app (OurFamilyWizard, TalkingParents) to create a documented record. Specify response time expectations for non-emergency communications.
Transportation responsibilities — who drives the child to and from exchanges? Is it always the receiving parent, always the delivering parent, or do they meet at a neutral location? For long-distance arrangements, who pays for travel?
Exchange location — the specific address or location where the child is transferred. For high-conflict situations, neutral locations like a school, library, or police station reduce confrontation.
Extracurricular activities — who decides which activities the child participates in? Who pays? Can a parent sign the child up for activities that fall during the other parent's custody time? These questions generate an enormous number of post-order disputes.
Virtual contact — scheduled phone calls, video calls, or messaging between the child and the non-custodial parent. Specify times, frequency, and platform.
New partner introduction — some plans include provisions about when and how a parent's new romantic partner is introduced to the child, including overnight guest restrictions.
Travel and passport — notice requirements before traveling out of state with the child, passport possession and access rules, and international travel consent procedures.
The Inadmissibility Protection
Here's something most parents don't know: under 23 Pa.C.S. § 5331, a parent's proposed parenting plan, and the positions detailed in it, is legally inadmissible as evidence against them in court.
What this means: you can propose generous compromises, experiment with creative scheduling options, and negotiate openly without fear that the other parent will later use your proposals against you at trial. If you offer a 60/40 schedule in your proposed plan and the case goes to trial, the other parent can't tell the judge "they already admitted 60/40 is fair."
This protection exists specifically to encourage honest, good-faith negotiation. Use it. Draft your plan as a genuine attempt to find a workable arrangement, not as a strategic position paper.
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Choosing the Right Schedule
The schedule is the backbone of the parenting plan, and it should match the child's developmental stage:
Infants and toddlers — young children need frequent contact with both parents but can't handle long separations from their primary caregiver. A 2-2-3 alternating schedule (two days with Parent A, two with Parent B, three with Parent A, then swap) keeps the child connected to both parents without being away from either for more than three days.
School-age children — longer blocks work better once children are in school. A 2-2-5-5 schedule (Parent A has Monday/Tuesday, Parent B has Wednesday/Thursday, alternating five-day weekends from Friday through Tuesday) provides consistent weekday routines and extended parenting time.
Teenagers — teens have complex academic and social schedules. Alternating weeks (week on, week off) minimizes school-week transitions and respects their independence.
Long-distance parents — when weekly alternation isn't possible, the plan should focus on extended blocks: majority of summer break, alternating school holidays, and regular virtual contact.
For each schedule, calculate the exact overnight count. It matters for child support — the 146-overnight threshold under Pa.R.C.P. 1910.16-4(c) triggers a graduated support adjustment.
High-Conflict Parenting Plans
When cooperation isn't realistic, the plan needs to compensate by reducing contact points between parents:
- Schedule exchanges through school (one parent drops off in the morning, the other picks up in the afternoon) to eliminate face-to-face exchanges
- Require all non-emergency communication in writing through a monitored co-parenting platform
- Give each parent full autonomy over daily decisions during their custodial time (parallel parenting)
- Avoid right of first refusal provisions — they create unnecessary contact and disputes
- Specify a dispute resolution mechanism (parenting coordinator, mediator) for issues that can't be resolved through written communication
Getting Your Plan in Front of the Court
In a contested case, submit your proposed parenting plan to the court before your conciliation conference. Conference officers use the parents' proposed plans as starting points for negotiation.
In an agreed case, both parents sign the parenting plan and submit it to the judge as a Consent Order. The judge reviews it to ensure it serves the child's best interests, signs it, and it becomes a binding court order.
The Pennsylvania Child Custody & Parenting Plan Guide includes section-by-section drafting worksheets for building a parenting plan that covers all five statutory categories plus the commonly overlooked provisions — structured to produce a document your conference officer can work with directly.
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