Georgia's Parenting Plan Requirement: What Every Parent Needs to Include

If your case involves custody in Georgia — whether it's a divorce, a legitimation action, or a modification — the court will require a parenting plan before it enters a final order. A parenting plan is the detailed roadmap for how you and the other parent will raise your child in two households. Parents can submit a plan together if they agree, or each parent can submit their own proposal and let the judge decide. Either way, no custody case in Georgia is complete without one.

Georgia law requires a parenting plan to address specific topics: where the child will spend weekdays, weekends, holidays, birthdays, and school breaks; how and where custody exchanges will happen; how transportation will be handled; how parents will make major decisions about education, healthcare, religion, and extracurricular activities; and which parent has final decision-making authority in each area if the parents disagree. The plan must also acknowledge that a close, continuing relationship with both parents is generally in the child's best interests.

The most common mistake parents make is submitting a vague plan. "Reasonable visitation as agreed by the parties" might sound cooperative, but it's an invitation to conflict — because when the relationship sours, "reasonable" means something different to each parent. A strong parenting plan anticipates friction points before they happen: who gets Thanksgiving in even years, what happens when a holiday conflicts with a regular weekend, how much notice is required for schedule changes, and how parents will communicate (many Georgia courts now encourage co-parenting apps that keep a written record).

A well-drafted parenting plan is one of the best investments you can make in your post-divorce life — it prevents the small disputes that send families back to court. 



At Chisolm Trimble & Associates, LLC, we draft and negotiate parenting plans for families across Douglasville and Metro Atlanta that hold up in real life, not just on paper. Call 770-741-1570 or visit www.chisolmtrimblelaw.com to get started.