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Parents who separate in Illinois want to know who decides where a child goes to school, who chooses the child’s doctor, and who signs the child up for activities. The court answers those questions through an allocation of decision-making responsibilities, and the rules sit in the statute. We’ve put together answers to the questions parents bring to us.
What Does Decision-Making Responsibility Cover?
Under Section 602.5 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, the court allocates decision-making responsibilities according to the child’s best interests. The statute names four significant issues: education, health, religion, and extracurricular activities. Education includes the choice of schools and tutors, and health covers the child’s medical, dental, and psychological needs.
Decision-making is separate from parenting time, which covers where the child spends each day. A parent can hold a large share of the parenting schedule and still share authority over the major choices, so the two questions need separate answers.
Can Parents Split the Issues Between Them?
The court allocates each issue to one parent or to both, so one parent might make the school decisions while the two share the health decisions. Religion follows special rules. The court looks to any express or implied agreement between the parents or, if there is none, to their past conduct, and it allocates no aspect of religious upbringing when neither exists or the evidence falls short.
What Factors Does the Court Weigh?
The statute lists best-interest factors, and these are among them:
- The child’s wishes, taking into account the child’s maturity
- The child’s adjustment to home, school, and community
- The mental and physical health of everyone involved
- The parents’ ability to cooperate and the level of conflict between them
- Each parent’s past participation in significant decisions
- Any prior agreement or course of conduct between the parents
- The distance between the parents’ homes and the cost and difficulty of transporting the child
- Each parent’s willingness and ability to support the child’s relationship with the other parent
Records help. Parents who want to show these factors with real examples can work with a Park Ridge family lawyer to pull together school records, medical appointments, and a written history of who handled what. The list also ends with any other factor the court expressly finds relevant, so the evidence isn’t limited to the items above.
Who Handles Daily and Emergency Choices?
Each parent makes routine decisions and emergency health and safety decisions during that parent’s own parenting time. Because of that, the parenting schedule and the decision-making split affect each other, and a Park Ridge child custody lawyer can draft both pieces of a proposal side by side. A plan that treats them together keeps the proposal consistent.
Do Safety Concerns Change the Analysis?
They can. Among the factors are physical violence or the threat of physical violence by a parent directed against the child, and abuse against the child or another member of the child’s household. A parent with those concerns should raise them with a Park Ridge domestic violence attorney early, because safety measures can be put in place alongside the parenting case.
What If Circumstances Change Later?
A job offer in another city or a move to a new school district can raise questions about an existing allocation. Parents weighing a relocation can look at the issues involved in moving out of state with kids, since a move can change how decisions are shared.
A written comprehensive parenting plan gives each parent a record of what was agreed. That record makes it easier to see what has changed when one parent asks the court to revisit the arrangement.
Money questions run on a separate track from decision-making. When a parent’s income changes, a Park Ridge support modification lawyer can explain how a change in circumstances is raised with the court.
Who Handles These Questions at Our Firm?
At Merel Family Law, our attorneys have 221 years of combined experience in family law, and every one of them handles this work. Jonathan Merel serves as our founder and managing principal and is admitted in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
What Is the Best First Step for a Parent?
Decision-making authority shapes daily life for years, so the evidence a parent gathers early carries real weight. Parents in Park Ridge who want to understand where they stand can reach out to us to go over the factors and build a plan.
