Summer is Coming
By Janet VanderZanden, Associate Attorney
For most, the anticipation of summer is all about swimming pools and lazy days, but for parents who share custody of their kids it can be a time of confusion, dread, and aggravation! For families where the parents live over one hundred miles away from each other, there are some differences in the Standard Possession Order (SPO).
For those families where the parents live within one hundred miles of each other, where the non-custodial parent—normally the parents without decision-making on residence—has a SPO, there are several changes to the schedule that happen as soon as school is released for the summer:
Thursday evening possessions go away. The SPO gives the non-custodial parent 6:00 to 8:00 pm every Thursday. During the summer there is NO weekday possession.
The regular weekends that the non-custodial parent has possession (1st, 3rd, and 5th weekends) stay intact.
The non-custodial parent gets a 30-day extended period of time over the summer. If the non-custodial parent provides the custodial parent with notice by April 1, he or she can choose ANY 30-day period, provided that it does not begin any earlier than the day the children are released for the summer from school and must end at least a week before they return. If the non-custodial parent does NOT provide written notice by April 1, the non-custodial parent automatically gets possession from July 1 to July 31.
The custodial parent is entitled to one weekend during the non-custodial parent’s extended period of time if he or she provides written notice of that intention by April 15. (For example, if non-custodial parent has the children from July 1 to July 31, the custodial parent can exercise a weekend during that time—provided the appropriate notice was given). The weekend is from 6:00 pm on Friday to 6:00 pm on Sunday and the custodial parent must both pick up and drop off the children.
The custodial parent is also entitled to a “take back” weekend over the summer, meaning her or she gets to “take back” one of the non-custodial parent’s regular 1st, 3rd, or 5th weekend. The idea behind this is to enable the custodial parent to have the children for an extended period of time in the summer for a vacation. The custodial parent must give 14 days notice and the “take back” weekend cannot interfere with the non-custodial parent’s extended summer possession period.
Dad is always entitled to Father’s Day weekend in June regardless if he is a custodial or non-custodial parent (Mom gets Mother’s Day weekend, just the same). If mom is the custodial parent and dad is exercising his extended possession in June, she cannot choose Father’s Day weekend as her “take back.”
Summer time is ripe for all kinds of parental issues. Make sure you are clear as to what your order entitles you and the other party to in terms of possession to save yourself (and your children), time, money, and aggravation!
