Learning from COVID to Tighten Up Child Custody Issues

Here in Bucks County, PA, divorced parents had to adjust rather quickly to deal with the COVID-19 lockdown. For some co-parents schedules were easily adjusted. For others, especially those who do not get along, it was a much more difficult transition. After helping families restructure parenting plans due to the pandemic, here is our best advice on how to tighten up your child custody arrangements moving forward.  

As concerns about COVID-19 exposure continue for the time being, divorced parents need to remain vigilant about the safety of their children and themselves. Parents have to be flexible and make changes, but doing so in the midst of a pandemic can create unnecessary stress for some parents and children that could be prevented by having appropriate provisions in their parenting arrangements. Because of this national emergency, important lessons about child custody have been learned that may be wise to include in future parenting arrangements. 

Some Issues that Arise Due to Health Concerns

With schools shut down, the utilization of distance learning, or a hybrid of in-class and online learning, has disrupted existing child custody and visitation schedules. And concerns about potential exposure to the virus, stay-at-home orders, and the closing of businesses that were used as exchange locations have caused further confusion and disruption. We have fielded many questions for our clients, such as:

• Can I withhold my child from visiting the co-parent due to stay-at-home orders or COVID exposure concerns?
• What do we do if the other parent has supervised visitation?
• What about planned visitation on school holidays and breaks if there’s no school?
• What if my child’s other parent has COVID, has been recently exposed, or has a high-risk occupation? Must I allow my child to visit?
• What if school is closed or online and both of us work full time?
• What if my child has a compromised immune system and can’t risk contracting COVID?

 Solutions and Suggestions for the Future

The first important piece of advice we give to our clients is not to defy child custody orders. If you do, you could be held in contempt of court. Even if you feel you’re acting in your child’s best interest, you could be penalized by the courts and actually lose some of your parental rights in the future. 

If you feel there is an immediate threat to your child’s health or welfare, you can seek an emergency custody order, but you would have to show a clear and impending threat to your child. 

Since both parents presumably want what’s best for your child, the best route is to discuss each of the issues in your particular situation and create a modified co-parenting plan. It’s critical to write down all the issues and agreed-upon solutions and have the document signed by both parents and if possible, notarized or signed in the presence of your lawyers. 

If necessary, due to lack of cooperation, you could seek a temporary modification of child custody from the courts. Some possible modifications: 

• A temporary postponement of or decrease in the number of in-person visitations. Keep a careful log of lost visitation time to be made up later.
• The replacement of supervised visitation with videoconferencing visits.  
• A clear set of rules before in-person visitation with the other parent can occur, for example, no known exposure in the last 10 days and no sniffles or other signs of health problems for the other parent or anyone living in the other parent’s home; social distancing, hand washing, and other agreed-upon precautions clearly followed during the visit.
• Modification of work arrangements and/or work hours. If you both work full time but the child will have to be home due to school closure or online learning, one parent could try to make arrangements to work from home or decrease their hours, for which the other parent would financially compensate them, or choose a caregiver you both trust.

The lesson we’ve learned from this past year of lockdowns and facemasks is that these considerations should be outlined in child custody or parenting arrangements ahead of time. No one ever expects a pandemic, just as no one expects a house fire or a natural disaster – but that’s why we have insurance. Including some guidelines in future parenting arrangements to prepare for temporary disruption of normal custody plans is just good insurance in case of future disruptions.