Tennessee Permanent Parenting Plan: What It Requires and How to Complete It

Every Tennessee divorce involving a minor child must include a Permanent Parenting Plan (PPP) as part of the Final Decree. Under T.C.A. § 36-6-404(a), the court will not finalize your divorce without one. Tennessee requires you to use the standardized form published by the Administrative Office of the Courts — no custom templates, no informal agreements written on a napkin.

What the Parenting Plan Must Include

The state's standardized PPP form covers four major areas:

Residential Schedule

You must designate a Primary Residential Parent (PRP) and an Alternative Residential Parent (ARP). The plan specifies exactly which calendar days the child spends with each parent — weekdays, weekends, holidays, school breaks, summer vacation, and the child's birthday.

Tennessee courts care about overnights, not just "visitation hours." The number of overnight stays assigned to each parent directly affects child support calculations under the Income Shares Model. More overnights with one parent generally means higher support obligations for the other.

Decision-Making Authority

The plan allocates which parent has final say on three categories of major decisions:

• Education — school enrollment, tutoring, special education services
• Non-emergency healthcare — ongoing medical treatment, therapy, orthodontics
• Religious upbringing — religious education, church attendance, ceremonies

Parents can share decision-making equally or assign each category to a specific parent. Day-to-day decisions (meals, bedtime, routine medical care) remain with whoever has the child at the time.

Transportation and Exchange

The plan must specify how custody exchanges happen — who drives, where the exchange occurs, and how parents communicate about schedule changes. Courts prefer specific terms over vague language like "the parents will cooperate." Clarity here prevents disputes later.

Dispute Resolution

Tennessee requires the parenting plan to include a process for resolving future disagreements. Most plans designate mediation as the first step before either parent can return to court.

Child Support Worksheets

The PPP must be filed alongside completed child support worksheets. Tennessee calculates support using the Income Shares Model, which factors in:

• Gross monthly income of both parents
• Number of parenting days (overnights) each parent has
• Monthly out-of-pocket costs for the child's health insurance
• Work-related childcare expenses
• Credits for other children in either parent's household

Use the official Tennessee Department of Human Services Child Support Calculator — either the downloadable Excel worksheet or the state's mobile application — to generate the mandatory worksheets. Courts reject parenting plans that attempt to waive child support or deviate from the guidelines without detailed written justification.

The Parenting Education Requirement

Under T.C.A. § 36-6-408, both parents must complete a state-approved, four-hour parenting education seminar. This must be finished as early as possible after filing — do not wait until the last minute. The class covers co-parenting communication, the impact of divorce on children, and conflict resolution.

Costs range from $25 to $100 per parent depending on the provider. File the certificate of completion with the court clerk. While the court technically cannot block a Final Decree solely because one parent skipped the class, non-compliant parents risk contempt of court charges.

Common Mistakes

Vague residential schedules. "Every other weekend" is not specific enough. The plan needs exact dates, times, and pickup/dropoff locations. Judges send back plans that leave room for interpretation.

Ignoring holiday rotations. Holidays need year-by-year alternation specified in the plan. Which parent gets Thanksgiving in even years vs. odd years? What about the child's birthday? The standardized form has fields for each major holiday — fill them all in.

Skipping the child support worksheet. The parenting plan and child support worksheet are a package. Filing one without the other gets rejected.

For help completing the Permanent Parenting Plan alongside the full divorce filing process, the Tennessee Divorce Filing Process Guide walks through every required document and provides a parenting class timeline.

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