Family Law · Child Custody & Time-Sharing
What Florida now calls “time-sharing,” how a parenting plan sets the schedule, and how a parent can legally change an existing order when life changes.
If you are searching for your “visitation rights,” you are looking for what Florida law now calls time-sharing. Florida retired the words custody and visitation in 2008 and replaced them with a parenting framework built around a written parenting plan and a time-sharing schedule. This guide explains how that schedule is created, what rights each parent has, and — most importantly — the exact legal standard a parent must meet to modify an existing time-sharing order after the divorce or paternity case is over.
The Language of Florida Custody Law
In 2008, the Florida Legislature removed the terms custody, primary residential parent, and visitation from the statutes that govern parents. Today, three terms do the work those words used to do:
The Foundation Document
Every Florida case involving minor children — divorce or paternity — must result in a parenting plan. If the parents agree, they submit their own plan for the judge to approve. If they don’t agree, the judge creates one after evaluating the statutory factors. A complete parenting plan must address:
Effective July 1, 2023, Florida law contains a rebuttable presumption that equal (50/50) time-sharing is in the best interests of the child. §61.13(2)(c), Fla. Stat. This is a major change. The court now starts from the assumption that both parents should have equal time. A parent who wants an unequal schedule must prove, by the greater weight of the evidence, that equal time-sharing would not serve the child.
When parents don’t agree, the judge must evaluate roughly twenty statutory factors and put the findings in writing. §61.13(3), Fla. Stat. The factors that most often decide cases include:
What You Are Actually Entitled To
Until a court enters an order, both legal parents have equal rights to the child. Once a parenting plan is signed by the judge, it becomes a binding court order — and both parents must follow it exactly. Key points parents often misunderstand:
Changing an Existing Order
Life changes — a job relocation, a new school, a parent’s recovery or relapse, a child’s changing needs. Florida lets a parent ask the court to modify an existing parenting plan, but the law deliberately sets a high bar so that schedules stay stable for the child. To modify time-sharing, the requesting parent must prove two things:
For decades, Florida courts required a third element: the change had to be “unanticipated” — something the parents could not reasonably have foreseen when the order was entered. That requirement was eliminated effective July 1, 2023. A parent seeking modification today must show only that the change is substantial and material — not that it was unforeseeable. This makes modification meaningfully easier to pursue than it was before 2023, though it is still far from automatic.
A Special Modification Rule
Florida added a specific modification trigger in 2023. If, at the time of the last order, the parents lived more than 50 miles apart, and one parent later moves within 50 miles of the other, that move by itself may qualify as a substantial and material change in circumstances — opening the door to a modified schedule, as long as the change is in the child’s best interests. §61.13(3), Fla. Stat. This recognizes that a parent moving closer often makes more frequent time-sharing realistic.
The path — and the difficulty — depends entirely on whether the other parent agrees.
When both parents want the same change, you file a stipulated (agreed) modification — a written, signed amended parenting plan submitted to the court. The judge reviews it for the child’s best interests and, in most cases, signs it without a contested hearing.
This is the fastest, least expensive route. The key is getting the new schedule into a court order — a private agreement alone is not enforceable.
If the other parent disagrees, you file a Supplemental Petition to Modify (Form 12.905(a)), serve the other parent, and the case proceeds much like the original — disclosure, possibly mediation, and a hearing or trial.
You carry the burden of proof on both the substantial-change element and best interests. Contested modifications are document- and evidence-intensive, and many parents use an attorney for them.
The Procedure
Before filing, identify the substantial and material change since your last order and gather evidence of it — communications, records, dates, and how it affects the child. A temporary or minor issue will likely be dismissed.
File the “Supplemental Petition to Modify Parental Responsibility, Visitation or Parenting Plan/Time-Sharing Schedule and Other Relief” with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county that issued your original order. State the change and the modified schedule you want.
The other parent must be formally served with the supplemental petition and given the chance to respond — usually within 20 days. Proper service is required even if you are on good terms.
If support is also affected, updated Financial Affidavits and a Child Support Guidelines Worksheet are required. Many circuits also order an updated parenting plan and a parenting course.
Florida courts typically refer modification disputes to family mediation first. A signed mediation agreement can be submitted to the judge as an agreed modification — resolving the case without trial.
If mediation doesn’t resolve it, a judge hears the evidence and decides. If granted, the court enters an amended parenting plan, which replaces the old schedule and is enforceable going forward.
When a child faces an immediate risk of harm, a parent can ask for an emergency (ex parte) temporary modification. Florida courts grant these sparingly and only on a clear showing of genuine danger — they are not a shortcut for ordinary disputes. If granted, the order is temporary until a full hearing can be held.
When Someone Other Than a Parent Wants Time
This is where Florida still uses the word “visitation.” Because fit parents have a constitutional right to decide who their children spend time with, Florida grants grandparent visitation only in narrow, serious circumstances. §752.011, Fla. Stat. A grandparent may petition only when:
Even then, the grandparent must clear a preliminary hearing showing parental unfitness or significant harm to the child, and ultimately prove visitation is in the child’s best interests and won’t harm the parent-child relationship. A grandparent generally may file only once every two years. In short: ordinary disagreements between parents and grandparents do not give grandparents an enforceable right to visitation in Florida.
When the Order Is Ignored
A parenting plan is a court order, and a parent who repeatedly violates it can face real consequences. If the other parent is denying you your scheduled time-sharing, the remedy is not to retaliate or withhold the child — it is to ask the court to enforce the order. Florida courts can:
Florida-specific parenting plan and modification documents, completed from your answers and reviewed by a trained Legal Document Preparer before you file — with county-specific filing instructions.
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