When parents divorce or separate, Illinois courts do not look for a winner between parents. Instead, they focus on what arrangement will best protect the child’s welfare, stability, safety, and development. This approach is called the best-interests-of-the-child standard. It guides decisions about both major choices for the child and how parenting time is shared. We help parents understand how judges use this standard and how their actions, evidence, and parenting plans can influence the court’s decision.
Illinois law no longer relies primarily on the traditional terms “custody” and “visitation.” Instead, the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act addresses the allocation of parental responsibilities.
Parental responsibilities generally involve two separate areas. The first is significant decision-making responsibility. The second is parenting time.
Under 750 ILCS 5/602.5, the court must allocate significant decision-making responsibilities according to the child’s best interests. These responsibilities may involve education, medical and psychological care, religion, and extracurricular activities. The court may assign a particular area to one parent or divide decision-making responsibilities between both parents. Illinois law does not require an equal allocation in every case.
Parenting time refers to the periods when each parent is responsible for caring for the child. Under 750 ILCS 5/602.7, the court must also allocate parenting time according to the child’s best interests.
The court may reach different conclusions about these two areas. Parents might share significant decisions while following an unequal parenting schedule. In another case, the court may allocate one major decision-making category to one parent while giving both parents substantial parenting time.
When deciding who should make major decisions for the child, the court examines all relevant circumstances. Section 602.5 identifies several factors that judges may consider.
The court may consider the child’s wishes when the child is mature enough to express a reasoned and independent preference. A child does not automatically choose which parent receives decision-making authority. The judge must consider the child’s age, maturity, reasoning, and whether the preference appears to have been influenced by either parent.
The court also examines the child’s adjustment to home, school, and community. A stable routine, successful school placement, established medical care, and strong community relationships may be important.
The mental and physical health of everyone involved may also matter, but a diagnosis alone does not decide the case. The question is whether a health condition affects a parent’s ability to make responsible decisions or meet the child’s needs.
Another major factor is the parents’ ability to cooperate. Shared decision-making can become difficult when parents cannot communicate, repeatedly refuse to exchange information, or use disagreements to delay important choices. The court may also review each parent’s history of participating in educational, medical, religious, and extracurricular decisions.
We often help clients organize records showing their past involvement. School communications, medical appointments, activity schedules, emails, and other documents may demonstrate which parent has handled important responsibilities and whether the parents have been able to work together.
The parenting-time analysis focuses on the child’s daily care and relationship with each parent. The court considers the wishes of both parents and, when appropriate, the child’s wishes.
Judges may examine how much care taking each parent performed during the 24 months before the case began. This does not mean that the parent who historically performed more daily care automatically receives more parenting time. It does mean that the court may consider the routines the child already knows and each parent’s practical experience meeting the child’s needs.
The court may also examine the child’s relationship with parents, siblings, and other important people. The distance between the parents’ homes, school transportation, work schedules, childcare arrangements, and the cost and difficulty of exchanges may affect whether a proposed schedule is realistic.
Each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent is another important consideration. A parent who repeatedly interferes with communication, blocks reasonable contact, or involves the child in adult disputes may weaken that parent’s position.
Illinois courts are directed to consider conduct that affects the parent’s relationship with the child. Personal behavior that has no meaningful effect on the child or parenting ability should not control the decision.
Parents often ask whether a child can decide where to live. Illinois law permits the court to consider the child’s wishes, but the preference is not binding.
A younger child may have difficulty understanding the long-term consequences of a parenting schedule. Even an older child’s preference may be influenced by fewer household rules, access to friends, a preferred school, or pressure from one parent.
Under 750 ILCS 5/604.10, the court may interview the child privately in chambers to learn the child’s wishes concerning parental responsibilities. Attorneys are generally present unless the parties agree otherwise, and the interview is recorded and filed under seal.
Parents should not ask children to select a side, rehearse statements, or carry messages between households. Courts may take attempts to influence a child seriously. We help clients present legitimate concerns without forcing the child into the center of the case.
Illinois law does not automatically require a 50-50 parenting schedule. The court must create a schedule based on the individual child’s best interests.
Equal parenting time may work well when parents live near one another, communicate effectively, follow similar routines, and can manage school and activity transportation. It may be less practical when parents live far apart, work conflicting schedules, or have a level of conflict that makes frequent exchanges harmful.
The court does not simply count which parent has the larger home, higher income, or more flexible schedule. A parenting plan should reflect the child’s school attendance, sleep schedule, relationships, health needs, activities, and need for dependable contact with each parent.
We help parents propose detailed schedules that address weekdays, weekends, holidays, vacations, school breaks, transportation, exchanges, telephone contact, and unexpected changes. A workable plan is often more persuasive than a general request for “equal time” without practical details.
The child’s safety is central to the best-interests analysis. The court may consider physical violence, threats, abuse, harassment, substance misuse, neglect, and other conduct that affects the child or another household member.
Illinois law generally presumes that parents are fit. A court does not impose restrictions merely because the parents dislike or distrust each other. Under 750 ILCS 5/603.10, restrictions may be imposed when the court finds conduct that seriously endangers the child’s physical, mental, moral, or emotional health or significantly impairs the child’s emotional development.
Restrictions may include supervised parenting time, protected exchange locations, prohibitions on substance use, required treatment, limitations involving particular individuals, or other safety conditions.
Claims of endangerment require credible evidence. Police reports, medical records, orders of protection, messages, photographs, witness testimony, treatment records, and admissions may become important. False or exaggerated accusations can damage a parent’s credibility and make a genuine parenting dispute harder to resolve.
Parents may submit an agreed written parenting plan for court approval. When parents cannot agree, each parent may be required to submit a proposed plan.
Under 750 ILCS 5/602.10, a parenting plan generally addresses the allocation of decision-making responsibilities, parenting time, holidays, transportation, communication, access to records, relocation notice, and methods for resolving future disputes. When the parents do not agree, the court determines parenting time according to the child’s best interests.
A detailed plan can reduce future conflict. Vague terms such as “reasonable parenting time” may create disagreement over dates, pickup times, transportation, and holidays.
We help clients prepare plans that fit the family’s actual circumstances. A strong proposal should be practical, child-focused, and specific enough to enforce.
A divorce or parental-responsibilities case may take months to resolve. During that period, the court can enter temporary orders addressing where the child stays and how decisions are made.
Under 750 ILCS 5/603.5, a court may temporarily allocate parental responsibilities according to the same best-interests standards used for final decisions. A temporary allocation may be entered after a hearing or, when there is no objection, based on an appropriate parenting plan.
Temporary orders are not necessarily the final outcome, but they can influence the family’s routine and the evidence later presented. Parents should take temporary proceedings seriously and comply with the resulting order.
A child’s needs and family circumstances can change after the original parenting judgment. A parent may change jobs, relocate, develop a serious health problem, or repeatedly fail to follow the parenting plan.
Under 750 ILCS 5/610.5, parenting time may be modified when changed circumstances make a modification necessary to serve the child’s best interests. Parenting time may be changed without proving serious endangerment, although requests to restrict parenting time require a higher showing.
Modifying significant decision-making responsibilities may involve different standards and timing requirements. We review the existing judgment, the requested change, and the evidence before deciding what type of petition is appropriate.
Parenting decisions made during an Illinois divorce can shape a child’s daily life for years. We help parents present evidence concerning decision-making responsibilities, parenting time, school needs, safety, family relationships, and practical schedules. We also prepare parenting plans, address temporary orders, respond to restrictions, and seek modifications when circumstances change.
Gordon & Perlut, LLC represents parents in Chicago, Skokie, and throughout Illinois. Our attorneys provide practical guidance in divorce, parenting time, parental responsibilities, modification, and other family law matters.
Call our Chicago divorce attorneys at our Chicago office at 312-360-0250 or our Skokie office at 847-329-0101 to arrange a free consultation. We represent clients throughout Chicago, Skokie, and Illinois.
