How Do Holiday Parenting Time Guidelines Work in Indiana?

When couples with children in Fort Wayne, or anywhere else in Indiana, decide to split up they of course will have to determine who gets custody of their children. After the parents and/or the court agree on the custody terms, parenting time and visitation will also need to be determined. In some cases the parents can come to a suitable agreement without having to battle it out in court. However, in other instances, a judge will be the one to determine visitation rights.

In almost all cases both parents will have visitation rights no matter what type of custody agreement is put in place. That means even if one parent receives full legal and physical custody of the children, the other parent will still have the right to enjoy some parenting time with his or her children. The exception to this would be if the court determines that it’s not in the best interest of the children to have contact with the non-custodial parent. This can occur in situations where the parent is guilty of abuse or drug use or another type of crime.

However, in most cases both parents will end up having at least some visitation rights. So how are those right set up in the state of Indiana? In March of 2013 the state Supreme Court approved several amendments to Indiana’s parenting time guidelines. Some of those changes include:

Holidays

– the previous requirement that non-custodial parents were not allowed to have three consecutive weekends because of a holiday schedule has been eliminated. Now, under the new rules, the alternating weekend schedule never changes. That means if a holiday weekend happens to fall on the customary weekend of the non-custodial parent, he or she will still get the regularly scheduled weekend parenting time as well as the holiday weekend.

Christmas break

– Christmas break is now calculated starting from two hours after the child is released from school on the last day before break all the way until 6:00 pm on the Sunday before the winter break ends. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are now counted as part of the break instead of separate holidays. Parents have to divide this time equally, right down the middle. They also have to switch off each year as to who gets the children during the first half of the break and who gets them during the second half.

New Holidays

– the new guidelines also added three new holidays, MLK Day, President’s Day and Fall Break. These days are now treated as part of the holiday schedule so the kids will now rotate which parent they will spend these days with each year.

Previous orders

– One important thing to be aware of is that the new guidelines do not affect previous parenting time decisions. They will only be applied to cases from March of 2013 going forward. However, parents can petition the court to request that the new guidelines be applied to their situation?

If you are experiencing any issues with your court-ordered parenting time schedule, in regards to the holidays, or just in general, then you can contact The Bellinger Law Office in Fort Wayne for help. We know how visitation and parenting time regulations work and we can fight for your rights. Give us a call today at 260-428-2214, or click here to contact us online.