North Dakota Parenting Plan: Required Elements, Templates, and How to File

Every divorce or custody case in North Dakota involving minor children must produce a written parenting plan — no exceptions. Under N.D.C.C. § 14-09-30, the final judgment cannot be entered without one. If parents agree, they sign a stipulated plan together. If they don't, each parent submits a proposed plan and the judge decides. Either way, the plan must address seven specific areas or the court will send it back.

The 7 Mandatory Elements

North Dakota statute requires every parenting plan to cover:

1. Decision-making authority. The plan must specify how major decisions about education, healthcare, and religious upbringing will be made. Options include sole decision-making (one parent decides), joint decision-making (both must agree), or split authority (one parent handles education, the other handles medical, for example). Day-to-day decisions stay with whichever parent has the child at that moment.

2. Information sharing. Rules for accessing the child's school records, medical records, and extracurricular information. This includes protocols for phone calls, video calls, and electronic communication between the child and the other parent.

3. School attendance residence. One parent's address must be designated as the child's legal residence for school enrollment. This matters even in 50/50 arrangements — a child can only be enrolled in one school district.

4. Residential schedule. A detailed calendar specifying where the child sleeps every night of the year: regular weekdays and weekends, summer break, winter break, spring break, holidays, and birthdays. Vague language like "reasonable parenting time as agreed" is insufficient and will likely be rejected in contested cases.

5. Transportation and exchange. Who drives the child, where exchanges happen, and what safety precautions apply. In high-conflict cases, courts often require neutral exchange locations like school drop-off/pickup or a designated public location.

6. Review and adjustment process. A written procedure for parents to periodically revisit and modify the plan as the child's needs change — without filing a court motion every time.

7. Dispute resolution. A mandatory method for resolving disagreements before either parent can go back to court. This is typically mediation, but can also be a parenting coordinator or another structured process.

Stipulated vs. Proposed Plans

A stipulated parenting plan means both parents have agreed on every detail and are submitting it jointly as Exhibit A to their settlement agreement. The court reviews it for compliance with statutory requirements and the child's best interests, but if everything checks out, the judge typically approves it without a hearing.

A proposed parenting plan is what each parent submits when they can't agree. Under Rule 8.3.1, each parent files their own proposed plan at least 14 days before the pretrial conference. The judge compares both proposals against the 13 best-interest factors and may adopt one plan, combine elements of both, or order something entirely different.

Common Mistakes That Get Plans Rejected

Vague scheduling. "Every other weekend" doesn't specify pickup and drop-off times, which parent handles transportation, or what happens when a holiday falls on a transition day. The plan needs exact times: "Friday at 5:00 PM through Sunday at 6:00 PM."

Missing the school-year vs. summer distinction. A schedule that works during the school year often doesn't account for summer break, when the regular weekday rotation may not apply. The plan should specify a separate summer schedule with exact start and end dates.

No first-right-of-refusal clause. While not legally required, courts increasingly expect plans to address what happens when a parent can't be with the child during their scheduled time. Without this clause, there's no obligation to offer the other parent time before calling a babysitter.

Ignoring communication protocols. Plans that don't address how parents will communicate about schedule changes, medical emergencies, or school issues create conflict. Specify the method (text, email, co-parenting app) and expected response time.

Building a Plan That Holds Up

The court's self-help forms provide the blank framework, but filling them in correctly requires understanding what judges actually look for — and what triggers rejection. The North Dakota Custody & Parenting Plan Guide includes a parenting plan builder worksheet that walks through each mandatory element with ND-specific language, plus schedule templates for different age ranges and distance situations.

See more North Dakota guides →