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Under a revision to the statutes effective August 28,
1998, a "parenting plan" must be submitted by both parents, either separately or
jointly, whenever a dissolution or modification of a prior judgment involves custody of or
visitation with the parents' unemancipated children. Minimum required contents of a
parenting plan are:
 | A specific written schedule detailing the custody,
visitation and residential time for each child with each parent, including:
 | Major holidays, stating which holidays each parent has
each year. |
| School holidays for school-age children. |
| The child's birthday, Mother's Day and Father's Day. |
| Weekday and weekend schedules, and, for school-age
children, how the winter, spring, summer and other vacations from school will be spent. |
| The times and places for transfer of the child between
the parents. |
| A plan for sharing transportation duties associated with
the residential schedule. |
| Appropriate times for telephone access. |
| Suggested procedures for notifying the other party when
a party requests a temporary variation from the residential schedule. |
| Any suggested restrictions or limitations on access to a
party and the reasons such restrictions are requested. |
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| A specific written plan regarding legal custody which
details how the decision-making rights and responsibilities will be shared between the
parties, including the following:
| Educational decisions and methods of communicating
information from the school to both parties. |
| Medical, dental and health care decisions including how
health care providers will be selected and a method of communicating medical conditions of
the child and how emergency care will be handled. |
| Extracurricular activities, including a method for
determining which activities the child will participate in when those activities involve
time during which each party is the custodian. |
| Child care providers, including how such providers will
be selected. |
| Communication procedures including access to telephone
numbers as appropriate. |
| A dispute resolution procedure for those matters on
which the parties disagree or in interpreting the parenting plan. |
| If a parent suggests no shared decision-making, a
statement of the reasons for such a request. |
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| How the expenses of the child, including child care,
educational and extraordinary expenses as defined in the child support guidelines
established by the Missouri Supreme Court, will be paid, including:
| The suggested amount of child support to be paid by each
party. |
| The party who will maintain or provide health insurance
for the child and how the medical, dental, vision, psychological and other health care
expenses of the child not paid by insurance will be paid by the parents. |
| The payment of educational expenses, if any. |
| The payment of extraordinary expenses of the child, if
any. |
| Child care expenses, if any. |
| Transportation expenses, if any. |
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If the proposed parenting plans of the parents differ,
and the parents cannot resolve the differences, the court can adopt a temporary or
permanent parenting plan after a hearing.
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