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If you’re divorcing with a child, your Final Decree of Divorce will include a parenting plan that details your parental rights and duties. This plan outlines how both parents will share responsibility for raising the child until they reach 18 or graduate high school. It covers important aspects of the child’s life, such as education, healthcare, and living arrangements, ensuring that both parents understand their roles and responsibilities in the child’s upbringing.
What Are Those Three Important Considerations That Make up a Parenting Plan?
When we discuss a parenting plan we are really talking about the following:
- Conservatorship
- Possession and Access
- Child Support
Three component pieces define your relationship with your child, regardless of your marital status. Similarly, non-divorced parents follow these principles, though they don’t formalize their plans in judge-approved legal documents.
If you’re thinking about divorce or child custody in Texas, you’re likely concerned about the time you’ll spend with your child post-order. Discussing “50/50” custody splits with friends and family is common to assess its practicality.
Your level of past involvement, whether as the neighborhood’s most active parent or one who could have been more present, leads to similar worries when initiating a family law case. These concerns are universal among parents facing such decisions.
Conservatorship: Understanding Your Legal Rights and Duties
Conservatorship, a legal term, refers to your parental rights and responsibilities. In Texas, it covers duties and privileges about your child’s living, education, and medical care.
If parents separate, a court order can share or split these rights and duties. This might include independent rights, allowing each parent to make decisions alone, or jointly held rights, needing mutual agreement for major decisions. Understanding these arrangements is vital for effective co-parenting and supporting your child.
Possession and Access: Navigating Custody and Visitation
Possession and Access, often linked to legal disputes, fundamentally ensures children maintain stable, loving relationships with both parents. It involves custody and visitation schedules.
In Texas, these schedules prioritize the child’s best interest. They can be standard orders or customized arrangements, aimed at nurturing a healthy relationship with both parents. Parents must collaborate, setting aside differences to focus on their child’s needs and well-being.
Child Support: Ensuring Financial Responsibility for Your Child
Child support is a topic that often comes loaded with emotions and concerns. In Texas, child support laws ensure children get adequate financial support from both parents, irrespective of their marital status.
Child support calculations consider parents‘ income, number of children, and any special needs. It’s meant to cover essentials like food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and education. Complying with child support is both a legal and moral duty, securing your child’s future.
In conclusion, understanding your parental rights and duties is essential when navigating a divorce with children. The parenting plan included in your Final Decree of Divorce will help establish a clear framework for how both parents will share responsibilities and make decisions in the best interests of the child. By clearly outlining each parent’s role, the plan ensures a structured and cooperative approach to co-parenting, helping to maintain stability and support for the child’s well-being throughout the divorce process and beyond.
Part two of the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC’s discussion on Conservatorship now up!
As always if you have questions on this subject or any other in the field of family law please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC. One of our licensed family law attorneys would be honored to meet with you to answer your questions and discuss your particular situation in a free-of-charge consultation.
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Other Articles you may be interested in regarding Custody
- Child Support in Texas: From Guideline Levels to Ending Obligations and Everything In Between
- The Ultimate Guide to Parental Rights and Responsibilities in Texas
- Exploring joint custody pros and cons for parents and children
- Amicus Attorneys in Child Custody Disputes in Texas?
- Sole Managing Conservator in a Child Custody Case in Texas?
- Teens with Children, Child Custody and Child Support in Texas
- Child Custody and Divorce in Spring, TX
- Custody and Visitation Rights of Grandparents in Texas
- 11 Things You Must Know About Texas Child Custody
- 12 Texas Custody & Conservatorship Battle Tips
Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC | Houston, Texas Child Custody Lawyers
The Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC routinely handles matters that affect children and families. If you have questions regarding child custody, it’s important to speak with one of our Houston, TX Child Custody Lawyers right away to protect your rights.
Our child custody lawyers in Houston TX are skilled at listening to your goals during this trying process and developing a strategy to meet those goals. Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC by calling (281) 810-9760 or submit your contact information in our online form.
