What Is The Difference Between Child Custody And Visitation?
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When a couple who has children get divorced, one of the most difficult issues to address tends to be the custody of the children. There are any number of different child custody and visitation arrangements that a court may recommend, and there can often be confusion as to what the specific legal terms that the court uses can mean. It is important that the parties involved in this process understand the difference between child custody and visitation, as well as the various types of child custody and visitation that the court might decree.
Child custody refers to at least a couple of categories of things. The first has to do with legal custody. Legal custody means that a parent has the right and responsibility to make decisions that relate to a child’s health, education, and general welfare and safety. Generally speaking, the preferred arrangement is for there to be joint legal custody, in which both parents have the responsibility to make these types of decisions, and in which the parents are encouraged to not only make the decisions autonomously but rather to make the decisions together.
The second type of custody refers to physical custody. Physical custody refers to the child’s residence. If a child resides roughly half of the time with each parent, the parents have joint physical custody. In some states, this ratio can be as little as the child spending 1/3 of his or her time with one parent, and the rest of his or her time with the other parent. If a child resides the vast majority of the time with one parent, that parent will have sole physical custody, and the non-custodial parent may have visitation rights.
When a parent does not have physical custody, they may still have visitation rights. Visitation arrangements often proscribe a very specific schedule, such as the child or children spending the first and third weekends of the month with the non-custodial parent. IN some cases, a parent may only be allowed supervised visitations, in which visits with the child have to be supervised by the custodial parent, another adult, or even a professional agency such as a law enforcement officer.
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