It is possible to modify a parenting plan and child support order in certain circumstances. Minor changes to a parenting plan involving schedule changes are more likely to be successful, while major changes to a parenting plan that involve changing custody tend to only be successful if either both parents agree to the change or when the parent requesting the modification can demonstrate a substantial change in circumstances.
To change child support orders, the parent making the request would need to show a significant change in circumstance. A major change to the parenting plan, major changes in income, a parent’s release from incarceration, the need for more support for educational, day care, or transportation expenses, or a request for post-secondary support could be reasons why a parent might seek changes to child support orders.
If you and your former partner agree about modifications to your parenting plan, you can submit to the courts an agreed Petition to Change a Parenting Plan or Custody Order. Modifications can typically be made when both parents agree to the changes. To change child support orders, you’ll need to fill out a Petition to Modify Child Support Orders and provide supporting documentation.
Yet, even when both parents agree about changes, modifying a parenting plan and child support order can still be complicated. This is why parents who want to modify a parenting plan or child support order often work with a family lawyer to help them navigate the process.
At Truce Law, we use a collaborative family law approach, which allows parents to negotiate changes to their parenting plan in private. The Washington state collaborative family lawyers at Truce Law can help you troubleshoot potential issues with your new proposed plan before you submit it to the court and can help you navigate the formal process of filling out the required paperwork (including requesting changes to child support, if needed).
Approval of a modified parenting plan will depend upon several factors. These factors include:
- Whether the changes you want to make to your parenting plan are major or minor. Minor parenting plan changes, like schedule changes to accommodate a parent’s changed work schedule are more likely to be approved than major changes involving custody.
- Whether both parents agree about the proposed parenting plan changes. Major changes are more likely to receive approval by the court if you and the other parent agree about the proposed changes, or if you and the other parent have already implemented the proposed changes and want to modify the parenting plan as it is written to reflect these changes.
- The reasons you provide for making changes to your parenting plan. To make minor changes to a parenting plan, the parent requesting changes must demonstrate that the situation for either parents or for the children has “changed substantially.” A schedule change at work or a noncustodial parent’s move could qualify.
To make major changes, the parent requesting changes must demonstrate that either the children’s situation or the other parent’s situation has “changed substantially.” It can be very difficult to make major modifications to an existing parenting plan because the courts only allow for four very narrow situations where major changes can be made (under RCW 26.09.260):
- Both parents agree about the changes;
- Changes have already been implemented with both parents’ permission;
- The children are in physical, emotional, or mental harm due to their living situation; or
- The other parent has repeatedly or seriously violated the parenting plan or court order, that is, they have been found “in contempt of court at least twice within three years because the parent failed to comply with residential time provisions in the court-ordered parenting plan, or the parent has been convicted of custodial interference in the first or second degree.”
Because of the complexity of changing a parenting plan, family lawyers often encourage divorcing or separating parents to exercise great care when writing their parenting plans the first time around. Once a parenting plan has been approved by the court, it can be very difficult to make major modifications to an existing plan without both parents’ consent.
Yet, as children get older, their needs change. Parents’ schedules change. School schedules and summer plans change. If the changes you want to make result from an involuntary schedule change at work, then you may be able to make minor changes to your parenting plan, as long as the plan doesn’t change the children’s primary custodial parent or their primary residence.
If you are the parent with visitation rights, you can also request minor changes to the parenting plan if you plan to move and find that the current schedule becomes unfeasible due to your new living situation. Finally, a parent who has completed required classes, evaluations, or treatment can request additional visitation time with the children if the current parenting plan doesn’t provide sufficient time.
In general, minor parenting plan changes cannot change the children’s schedule by more than 25 days each year. If a requested minor modification will change the children’s schedule by more than 25 days a year (but by less than 90 overnights), then the parent requesting the change would need to demonstrate that it’s in the children’s best interests to increase time with the parent and demonstrate that the current plan doesn’t provide sufficient parenting time.
If you are wondering how to modify a parenting plan in Washington state, this article offers general information about the process—for both major and minor changes.
- Is My Parenting Plan Change Considered a Minor or Major Change?
- How Do I Modify a Parenting Plan?
- Modifying a Parenting Plan Without Going to Court
- What Can I Do if the Other Parent Ignores an Existing Parenting Plan?
- Next Steps
Is My Parenting Plan Change Considered a Minor or Major Change?
In Washington state, there are two types of parenting plan modifications parents can pursue: minor modifications and major modifications.
Minor modifications of a parenting plan often involve minor modifications to the schedule proposed in the original parenting plan.
If you have changed jobs or have received a new work schedule that conflicts with your current parenting plan, you may be able to petition the court to make minor adjustments to your parenting plan that align with your new work schedule.
As children get older, their needs change, and you and your partner might find that a parenting schedule as written when your children were in elementary school doesn’t make sense for your children now that they’re in high school. The children might want to adjust how often they move back and forth between households.
While younger children benefit from frequent contact with both parents, older children are more able to handle longer times away, and parents might want to adjust their residential schedules accordingly. If the nonresidential parent is moving, he or she could also request minor modifications to the schedule if his or her move makes it difficult to follow the parenting plan as written.
Finally, minor modifications to a parenting plan can be requested by a parent who wants to increase their visitation time with their children (if the requested time doesn’t exceed 90 overnights). The Petition to Change a Parenting Plan or Other Custody Order has a section under “minor modifications” that allows parents seeking more visitation time with their children to document the completion of treatment programs, evaluations, and classes.
The parent requesting increased visitation under a minor modification would need to state that the current parenting plan doesn’t give the children enough visitation time and demonstrate that it’s in the children’s best interest to have more visitation time. If limitations on visitation were imposed under the original order, parents can also document changes to these limitations. For example, if one parent was living with a partner convicted of domestic violence, but has since left that living situation, this new situation can be documented.
Minor modifications generally don’t involve major changes to each parent’s allotted residential time, nor do minor modifications allow parents to change a child’s primary residence. These kinds of changes are considered major modifications to a parenting plan and generally involve closer scrutiny on the part of the courts.
Major modifications to a parenting plan involve major changes. Major modifications include changing the children’s primary residence or seeking significantly more overnights or more visitation time with the children. When a parent who hasn’t had custody or visitation rights seeks these rights, these are also considered major changes.
If you don’t have custody of your children under an existing parenting plan and want to fight for custody, you’ll need to petition the court to change the existing parenting plan. Major modifications can also be made if one parent’s home is no longer safe for the children.
To make major modifications to a parenting plan, the parent seeking changes must demonstrate to the court that either there has been a “substantial change” in circumstances under RCW 26.09.260, or new facts have come to light in the case that weren’t known when the original parenting plan was made.
The substantial change in circumstance typically must involve a situation that threatens the children’s emotional, physical, or psychological safety, involve a parent’s refusal to comply with the parenting plan, or custodial interference.
In general, it’s important to keep in mind that the courts prefer to maintain consistency and stability in the lives of children, and that courts will generally err on the side of keeping things the same rather than making changes.
Without the cooperation of both parents, major changes are generally very difficult to make (unless the children’s safety is at risk, or one parent significantly violates the parenting plan), and it’s wise to speak to a family lawyer in Washington state if you find yourself in this situation.
How Do I Modify a Parenting Plan?
Regardless of whether the modification of your parenting plan is minor or major, you’ll need to file a Petition to Change a Parenting Plan or Other Custody Order. You’ll usually file your petition in the county where your children live (typically this will be the county where the original petition was filed).
Yet, the question of which county or even which state has jurisdiction to change a parenting plan can get complicated if the children or parents have moved to another state or county. In general, if the children have moved, then you’ll file the petition in the county or state where your children currently live.
If you are a military family, or if your children travel between states or counties for visitation or residence, you may want to speak to a family lawyer to determine where you should file your petition.
The Petition to Change a Parenting Plan will include a summons, petition for modification, the new proposed parenting plan, cover sheets, and confidential information forms. You’ll also have to pay the filing fee and honor all legal requirements for formally notifying and delivering the summons to the other parent.
Modifying a parenting plan will not automatically trigger a re-evaluation of child support orders. For minor modifications of a parenting plan, child support orders won’t often change because minor modifications generally don’t significantly change the number of overnights the children spend with the residential parent.
If you’re requesting a major change to your parenting plan and believe that child support orders should also be modified, you’ll need to petition the court for a modification of child support when you submit the Petition to Change a Parenting Plan. If you want to modify child support, you’ll also need to submit child support worksheets, financial declarations, as well as tax returns for the prior two years, W-2s, and paystubs.
Modifying a Parenting Plan Without Going to Court
What makes modifications to a parenting plan so difficult is that often one parent wants to make the changes, while the other parent wants to maintain the status quo. When this happens, the parent requesting changes must take the other parent to court and prove to the judge that there has been a substantial change in circumstances that warrant the change.
Going to court over proposed parenting plan modifications can be costly and time-consuming, and sometimes the losing parent might end up even having to pay the legal fees of the parent who gets their way in court, especially if they cannot prove that substantial changes have taken place to warrant a change.
Yet, there is another way, one that doesn’t have to involve a costly fight in court over modifications to your parenting plan. If you and the other parent can both agree about minor or major changes to your parenting plan outside of court, you can potentially avoid court by filing an agreed Petition to Change a Parenting Plan.
And if you and the other parent can reach a resolution outside of court that no changes are required after all, then you can both potentially avoid a wasteful and time-consuming court battle.
The collaborative family lawyers at Truce Law in Washington state help parents work through questions about modifying their parenting plans at the negotiating table, rather than in court. Whether you and the other parent agree about the proposed changes or disagree, we can help.
It can be helpful to have a family lawyer help you navigate this process. The collaborative family lawyers at Truce Law in Seattle, Washington help families navigate major and minor parenting plan changes. When both parents are willing to sit down at the negotiating table and work together to find solutions that work for their families, they can often better preserve their co-parenting relationship and find solutions that work.
What Can I Do if the Other Parent Ignores an Existing Parenting Plan?
The only legal way to make changes to a parenting plan is to formally make changes through filing a Petition to Change a Parenting Plan, by filing an agreed Petition to Change a Parenting Plan, or by mutually agreeing to deviate from the existing parenting plan. If the other parent makes a unilateral decision to change the schedule, withhold the children, or interferes with visitation as outlined in the parenting plan, the parent could be found in contempt of court or could be charged with custodial interference.
Violations of a parenting plan can include refusing to return the children or failing to meet for an exchange of the children as agreed, willfully denying the other parent their visitation as scheduled in a parenting plan, or failing to follow communication protocols outlined in your parenting plan. Minor violations may not result in a parent being found in contempt. For example, a late exchange because of traffic or a delayed exchange because of circumstances outside either parents’ control would not generally be considered violation of a parenting plan.
Missing a scheduled phone call or text message here and there might not be sufficient grounds to find a parent in contempt. Yet, if the other parent repeatedly refuses to exchange the children as agreed, denies visitation without reasonable cause, or repeatedly violates communication protocols outlined in the parenting plan, then it’s a good idea to document each violation.
Write down dates, times, and details, and keep evidence of text message, email exchanges, or voice mails. If the other parent is violating or ignoring your parenting plan, and you don’t agree with the unilateral changes this parent has made, you might want to speak to a family lawyer as soon as possible. You might need to file a motion of contempt to find the other parent in contempt of court for violating your parenting plan. The family lawyers at Truce Law in Seattle, Washington can help.
Next Steps
The collaborative family lawyers at Truce Law can help you and your co-parent navigate changes to a parenting plan—big and small. Rather than fighting in court, we help parents negotiate solutions by using mediation strategies.
If you are a co-parent who wants to modify an existing parenting plan, or if you have learned that your former partner wants to change your parenting plan, consider reaching out to Truce Law for a Case Evaluation to explore options that can help you and your co-parent avoid court.
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every situation is unique. For guidance specific to your circumstances, consult a licensed family law attorney in your area.