When the romantic relationship ends between you and your son or daughter’s other parent in Illinois, you need to come up with a plan for raising your child together while living in separate homes. The state requires that you and your ex submit a parenting plan that outlines the terms you agree to follow when it comes to raising the child you share.
Per the Illinois General Assembly, the state requires that you cover certain areas in the parenting plan you submit. In the event that you and your ex are unable to come to terms with the contents of your parenting plan, you have the option of having the state come up with one on your behalf. Regardless of whether you and your ex create the parenting plan, or you have the state do so for you, it needs to cover the following areas.
Living arrangements
While your parenting plan should outline who has the child in their home and when, it often helps to take things further and cover who has the child on vacations, holidays and the like.
Decision-making responsibilities
You should also use the parenting plan to discuss when you or your child’s other parent has the right to make decisions for the child, and when the two of you have to confer before making decisions.
Plans for resolving future disagreements
Your plan must also contain an outline of how you plan to handle any future conflicts that arise on your co-parenting journey.
While these are some of the important elements you must include in an Illinois parenting plan, this is not a complete list of everything you must cover therein.
