Standard Visitation Schedule With Forms printable pdf download

Advisory Guidelines - Standard Visitation

Schedule with Forms

WHEN PARENTS ARE UNABLE TO SHIELD THEIR CHILDREN FROM THEIR

CONFLICT, OR WHEN THERE ARE SAFETY ISSUES RESULTING FROM

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, SERIOUS PHYSICAL OR MENTAL ILLNESS, CHRONIC

NEGLECT, CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY OR ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE,

THE ADVISORY GUIDELINES AND VISITATION SCHEDULES NEED TO BE

MODIFIED.

INTRODUCTION:

Pursuant to House Bill 2528, codified at 43 O.S. §111.1A, the

Administrative Director of the Courts was tasked by the Oklahoma Legislature

to develop standard visitation schedules and advisory guidelines. Assistance

for this project was solicited from the Oklahoma Bar Association/Family Law

Section....and an ad hoc committee was created.

Upon initial review, which greatly relied upon Doug Loudenback's

survey work of visitation schedules throughout the state, it became clear

there is no clear consistent formula which controls parent/child relationships

in family law cases across the spectrum. Some may argue that there are

simply too many variables to factor into a visitation schedule, which has as its

end goal "the best interest of the child". Others ask for a “statewide” standard

This information is located on Mr Loudenback's web site in the Family Law Resources

Current county-wide schedules (where they exist in either an official or a "typical" fashion), do not

indicate any reasonable amount of consistency from county to county, or, upon occasion, within counties from

individual judge-to-judge. This lack of consistency is reminiscent of child support orders prior to the adoption

of the child support guidelines. W hile the Legislature has not yet deemed it desirable that there be some

consistency, it might be reasonably inferred that the 2004 Legislation has at least some presupposition that

the same would be desirable, even if not required. From a "legal" perspective, there doesn't appear to be a

substantive rationale that parents and children should be treated differently from county to county, and, often,

from judge to judge within the same county (noting that in some counties, e.g., Comanche, different judges

have specific different schedules, presumably likewise true in Tulsa County which has no quasi-official

standard at all). Aside from equal treatment issues, and getting down to the personal/family level, one obvious

circumstance that calls for some uniformity is the fact that, following a large number of failed marriages, one

and often both parents remarry and that the "new" families often involve multiple sets of step-parent

circumstances within the same families. In other words, it is not uncommon, in a "current" context, that 4

parents are involved, including 2 pairs of "step parents", and 2 pairs of step children. In such circumstances,

some semblance of uniformity would ordinarily be desirable given the blending of multiple sets of parents and

children.

43 O.S. §111.1, 112, 112.2, 113. OBA/FLS Practice Manual, Chap 6.1, §6.1.7. Guardianship

of Sherle, 1984 OK CIV APP, 683 P.2d 78 (visitation is to contribute to a child's emotional well-

being by enabling the partial continuation of an earlier established relationship).

Standard Visitation Schedule With Forms