By publishing the "Planning for Parenting Time: Ohio's Guide for Parents Living Apart," the Ohio Supreme Court hopes it will help parents living apart reduce conflict and plan parenting time.

By publishing the "Planning for Parenting Time: Ohio's Guide for Parents Living Apart," the Ohio Supreme Court hopes it will help parents living apart reduce conflict and plan parenting time.

The Ohio Supreme Court has published a guide to help parents living apart reduce conflict and plan parenting time.

The genesis for “Planning for Parenting Time: Ohio’s Guide for Parents Living Apart” came from a 2005 report of the Advisory Committee on Children, Families and Courts, said Steve Hanson, section manager. The report recommended that developmentally appropriate guidelines for parenting plans should be developed and available for use by all families and courts.

He said elements of the guide were borrowed from a similar report published by the Arizona Supreme Court and adapted for Ohio. Lake County Domestic Relations Court Judge Colleen Falkowski led a work group of the Subcommittee on Family Law Reform Implementation that revised the guide.

“The beauty of the Ohio guide is that it’s child-centered,” Hanson said. “It looks at parenting time from the child’s perspective and how parents and the courts can create a situation that’s most beneficial for the children.”

Consistent with the 2005 recommendations, the Ohio guide provides guidelines for parenting time schedules. The guide offers customized options and ideas to structure parenting time based on the child’s age, the level and civility of the parents’ interaction and the daily schedule parents and children maintain.

Each of Ohio’s domestic relations and juvenile judges and legal aid organizations will receive copies of the guide, Hanson said.

The guide contains at least 20 different parenting time options with sample schedules, tips, and pros and cons of using each option. The guide also covers how to handle holidays, vacations, and school breaks as well as modifying plans to account for long-distance parenting and relocations.

View the interactive guide, which allows users to produce age-appropriate parenting time schedules.