How PA Courts Determine Parenting Time & Legal Custody
Parenting time and decision-making authority make up the two primary components of child custody arrangements in Pennsylvania. Parenting time refers to physical custody – or when the children are with one parent or the other – while decision-making authority is legal custody, which addresses major parenting decisions. Like other states, Pennsylvania bases both parenting time and decision-making authority on the children’s best interests.
Our experienced Allegheny Count child custody attorneys at Schaffranek & Foster can help you protect your rights as a parent.
Parenting Time and Decision-Making Authority
Prevailing wisdom regarding the well-being of children finds that they benefit when both parents remain in their lives to a significant degree. This doesn’t necessarily mean splitting parenting time down the middle. Both parents can, however, generally expect to receive a generous parenting time schedule and to share the authority to make major decisions on behalf of their children.
To clarify, legal custody, or decision-making authority, addresses important parenting decisions rather than smaller, everyday decisions. These include decisions about topics like the following:
- Medical care
- Education
- Daycare
- Extracurriculars and travel
- Religious education
Only if there is a serious reason for seriously limiting or denying a parent legal or physical custody will the court do so.
Best-Interest Factors
As mentioned, Pennsylvania courts are guided by the best interests of the children involved in the case at hand. In the process, they turn to best interest factors like the following:
- Each parent’s ability and commitment to maintaining a loving and stable home life that meets each child’s emotional needs
- Each parent’s ability and commitment to caring for the children in response to their unique physical, developmental, and educational needs, including any special needs
- Each parent’s level of involvement in raising the children to this point
- Each parent’s commitment to and capability of co-parenting effectively, and of promoting a close and loving relationship between the children and their other parent
- The degree to which the status quo, or the children’s current living arrangements, affords them stability and continuity in relation to home, education, and community
- The degree to which the extended family is available for support
- The children’s relationships with one another, as close sibling relationships are generally considered worth protecting
- The preference of each child who has the maturity and judgment necessary to participate
- Whether either parent has engaged in parental alienation in any of its many negative forms
- Any history of child neglect, child abuse, or domestic abuse
Every decision regarding parenting time or decision-making authority is determined in relation to the specific circumstances of the case before the court.
An Experienced Allegheny County Child Custody Lawyer Can Help
Our compassionate Allegheny County child custody attorneys at Schaffranek & Foster dedicate their impressive practice to guiding legal and physical custody cases toward optimal outcomes that reflect our clients’ rights as parents. We’re here for you, too, so please don’t put off contacting us online or giving our firm a call at 412-643-2848 for more information today.