The AOC Forms Give You Blank Lines. This Guide Tells You What to Write in Them.
Kentucky's Administrative Office of the Courts provides free family-law forms at kycourts.gov. The AOC-238 Petition is free. The AOC-152 Child Support Worksheet is free. The parenting plan template is free. Every blank document you need to file for custody is available at zero cost.
What is not free — and what the Circuit Court Clerk is legally prohibited from providing — is instruction. The forms do not explain the difference between legal custody and physical custody. They do not tell you how to structure a parenting time schedule that satisfies the KRS 403.270 joint custody presumption. They do not walk you through the best-interests factors the judge actually weighs, the 60-day waiting period, mandatory mediation, holiday rotation design, or the Rule 7.03 redaction requirements that can get your filing rejected on sight.
The Kentucky Child Custody & Parenting Plan Guide is the Joint Custody Roadmap — the process manual, schedule-building workbook, and Kentucky-specific step-by-step map that turns those blank court forms into a court-ready parenting plan.
What Makes This Different From a $499 Document Service
Online divorce services like Divorce.com ($499–$1,999) and 3StepDivorce ($84+) auto-populate the same free forms. They give you filled-in blanks — but not the reasoning behind those blanks. They do not include a schedule comparison showing how 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, and week-on/week-off rotations actually work in practice. They do not explain the county-level differences between Jefferson County's Thursday-to-Monday standard and traditional Friday-to-Sunday plans. They do not prepare you for what happens in mediation or teach you how to write decision-making provisions that prevent fights.
This guide takes the opposite approach. You download the official AOC forms for free. Then you use this guide to understand what goes into those forms, why it matters, and how Kentucky family courts actually evaluate your parenting plan.
What's Inside
Kentucky's Joint Custody Presumption — What It Actually Means
Under KRS 403.270, Kentucky was the first state in the nation to establish a rebuttable presumption of joint legal custody and equally shared parenting time. The guide explains what "rebuttable" means, how to build your case around the presumption rather than against it, what evidence a judge needs to deviate from 50/50, and how the de facto custodian doctrine under KRS 403.270(1)(c) applies when a non-parent has been the primary caregiver.
Parenting Time Schedule Library
Pre-written schedule templates for every major rotation: 2-2-3 for young children who need frequent transitions, 2-2-5-5 for school-age families who want midweek stability, and week-on/week-off for older children who thrive with longer blocks. Each template includes holiday rotations, summer vacation splits, school-break allocations, and precise language for pick-up and drop-off times, transportation duties, and weather-delay contingencies. Designed around Jefferson County and Fayette County guidelines so the schedule matches your local court's expectations.
The Best-Interests Factor Workbook
Kentucky judges evaluate custody under KRS 403.270(2) using statutory factors — each parent's wishes, the child's wishes, sibling bonds, the child's adjustment to home, school, and community, and any history of domestic violence. The guide includes a self-assessment worksheet that walks you through each factor with your own family's details so you arrive at mediation or your hearing with organized, specific evidence instead of vague claims.
Decision-Making Authority Templates
Joint legal custody means both parents share major decisions about education, healthcare, and religion — but "share" is meaningless without a dispute-resolution mechanism. The guide includes decision-making templates that specify who has final authority on each domain, tie-breaking procedures, emergency protocols, and communication requirements. Written to satisfy the court's model parenting guidelines.
Child Support and the Shared Parenting Time Credit
Kentucky uses the Income Shares Model, and parenting time directly affects the calculation. The guide explains how the AOC-152 worksheet works, how timesharing credits reduce the obligation in a 50/50 arrangement, and what happens when one parent has more overnights. Includes worked examples at multiple income levels.
Mediation Preparation
Under FCRPP 2(6)(a), Kentucky family courts routinely order mediation before trial. Mediators charge $125–$250 per hour, and sessions are expensive when parents arrive unprepared. The guide includes a mediation readiness checklist — the documents to collect, the schedule proposals to bring, and the mindset to adopt. Also covers the domestic violence exception: a protected party cannot be compelled to mediate with their abuser.
The Complete Procedural Roadmap
Every step from verifying the 180-day residency requirement through the final decree: file the verified petition (AOC-238), select a service method (certified mail, sheriff, or waiver), navigate the 60-day waiting period, comply with Rule 7.03 redaction requirements (child initials, SSN last four digits, birth year only), attend mandatory parenting classes, prepare for mediation, and present your parenting plan to the judge. Each step mapped to the Kentucky statute or rule that requires it.
Post-Decree Protection
Modification rules under KRS 403.340 (the strict two-year lockout and its endangerment exception), the mandatory 60-day relocation notice requirement, enforcement remedies when a co-parent violates the order, and the right-of-first-refusal provision that keeps your parenting time from being delegated to a babysitter.
Parenting Plan Worksheet
A comprehensive fillable worksheet covering every provision your parenting plan must address: residential schedule, holiday allocation, vacation time, decision-making authority, communication protocols, transportation logistics, new partner introduction rules, social media policies, and the court's model negative conduct agreement. Print it and bring it to your attorney, your mediator, or the courthouse.
Who This Is For
- You are filing pro se and the parenting plan blank is staring you in the face. The Circuit Court Clerk will check your formatting but is legally barred from telling you what schedule to propose, how to handle decision-making, or what a judge wants to see. This guide shows you.
- You have hired an attorney but want to walk in with a clear picture of your goals. Kentucky family-law attorneys bill $200–$350 per hour. Arrive with completed worksheets and your retainer lasts longer.
- You are heading into mediation and need to know your options before the session starts. Show up with schedule comparisons, decision-making proposals, and a holiday rotation already drafted — and the mediator can work efficiently instead of building from scratch at $125–$250 per hour.
- You are an unmarried parent seeking a custody order for the first time and need to understand how paternity, residency, and the 50/50 presumption apply to your situation.
Why the Free Court Forms Are Not Enough
The Kentucky Court of Justice Self-Help Portal provides excellent access to standardized forms and guided interviews. It does a good job making the courthouse accessible. What it cannot do — by law — is advise you.
The parenting plan template has blank lines for your schedule and decision-making provisions. It does not explain how to design that schedule. It does not compare rotation patterns. It does not tell you about the 50/50 presumption, the best-interests factors, the de facto custodian doctrine, the two-year modification lockout, or the Rule 7.03 redaction rules. The court provides the form. This guide provides the understanding.
— Less Than 15 Minutes of Attorney Time
Kentucky family-law attorneys bill $200–$350 per hour. A single phone call to ask "how do I write a parenting plan?" can cost more than this entire guide. Whether you are doing this yourself or preparing to hire counsel, the guide pays for itself before you finish the first chapter.
Instant download. 10 printable PDFs — the complete guide plus 8 standalone worksheets and reference cards. No subscription, no upsell, no auto-renew.
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
If this guide does not help you build a parenting plan and understand the Kentucky custody process, email [email protected] for a full refund. No questions, no time limit.
Start with the free checklist or get the complete guide
Download the Kentucky — Parenting Plan Starter Checklist for free — it covers the essential custody basics and a quick-start parenting plan outline. When you are ready for the full schedule library, best-interests workbook, mediation prep, and complete Kentucky procedural roadmap, the full guide is available for instant download.