Parenting Plan: Missouri Child Custody and Support

Parenting Plans are required in Missouri in cases of divorce, legal separation, etc. The Parenting Plan is, as you might expect, comprehensive. Courts will enter a weekly physical custody schedule, which even includes details regarding custody arrangements during holidays. Education choices, health care decisions, and extra-curricular decisions also need to be addresses. Are these decisions going to belong to one parent or both parents? In other words, should it be sole legal custody or joint legal custody? Lastly — but certainly not least — child support is ordered under the Parenting Plan and is incorporated into the divorce decree.
The Parenting Plan concerns primarily minor children. Because Missouri courts are sensitive to the welfare of children, the Parenting Plan is subject to modification should there be a change in circumstances which render the original order unreasonable. For instance, it is no uncommon that a motion to modify child custody be requested by a party to the divorce on the grounds that the circumstances of either the child or either parent has changed.
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