Kansas Child Custody Agreement

Not automatically, but Kansas gives the agreement real weight. K.S.A. 23-3202 provides that if the parties have entered into a parenting plan it shall be presumed that the agreement is in the best interests of the child. The statute then states the only route around it: the presumption may be overcome and the court may make a different order if the court makes specific findings of fact stating why the agreed parenting plan is not in the best interests of the child. That is a findings requirement rather than a burden of proof, so the practical effect is that a Kansas judge who wants a different arrangement has to explain on the record why yours does not work.

Yes. The plan is submitted to the court under K.S.A. 23-3207 and becomes binding through the order, not through the signatures. K.S.A. 23-3211(b) defines a permanent parenting plan as an agreement between parents which is incorporated into an order at a final hearing, and K.S.A. 23-2712(a) provides that even where a separation agreement is found valid, just and equitable and incorporated in the decree, its provisions relating to legal custody, residency, parenting time, support or education of the minor children remain subject to the control of the court. After entry the terms remain modifiable under K.S.A. 23-3218 through 23-3221.

Because the custody article never uses the phrase physical custody. The relevant article is titled legal custody, residency and parenting plans. K.S.A. 23-3206 deals with legal custody, joint or sole, which K.S.A. 23-3211 describes as the allocation of parenting responsibilities between parents, including decision making rights and responsibilities on matters of child health, education and welfare. Where the child lives is residency under K.S.A. 23-3207, and time with each parent is parenting time. An agreement written in generic custody and visitation language is not void, but it is not using the words the Kansas court will use in the order.

Yes, and that is the unusual part. K.S.A. 23-3207 provides that the parties shall submit to the court either an agreed parenting plan or, in the case of dispute, proposed parenting plans for the court's consideration, so a plan is filed either way. At the temporary orders stage, K.S.A. 23-3212(c) requires a parent asking for temporary orders touching custody, residency or parenting time to file a proposed temporary parenting plan contemporaneously with the request, and 23-3212(d) requires a disputing parent to file a responsive one. If the parents cannot produce a plan, or if either parent requests it, K.S.A. 23-3213(d) directs the court to develop a permanent parenting plan itself. The clerk of the district court supplies parenting plan forms prescribed by the supreme court under K.S.A. 23-3214(d).

K.S.A. 23-3213(b) sets four minimum provisions the plan must set forth: a designation of the legal custodial relationship of the child, a schedule for the child's time with each parent when appropriate, a procedure by which disputes between the parents may be resolved without need for court intervention, and, if either parent is a service member as defined in K.S.A. 23-3217, provisions for custody and parenting time upon military deployment, mobilization, temporary duty or unaccompanied tour. Beyond the floor, K.S.A. 23-3213(c) lists topics a plan may include but need not, among them the residential schedule, holiday, birthday and vacation planning, weekends including holidays and school inservice days, allocation of parental rights on health, education and welfare, sharing of and access to information, relocation of parents, telephone access, transportation, and methods for resolving disputes. The statute also allows the plan to be a general outline of how parental responsibilities and parenting time will be shared.

K.S.A. 23-3203(a) sets out eighteen numbered factors and directs the court to consider all relevant factors, including but not limited to those, so the list is open rather than closed. One list governs legal custody, residency and parenting time together rather than three separate ones. The factors are not switched off when the parents agree: K.S.A. 23-3202's presumption operates on top of the best interests standard, so the court is still applying best interests but starting from the position that your agreed plan satisfies it.

The statute puts it first. K.S.A. 23-3206 lists the legal custody arrangements in the order of preference, with joint legal custody first, and requires the court to make specific findings on the record if it orders sole legal custody instead. Joint legal custody is about decision making rights and responsibilities, not about where the child lives, which is decided separately as residency under K.S.A. 23-3207.

Thirty days, and it is not limited to long moves. K.S.A. 23-3222(a) requires a parent to give written notice to the other parent not less than 30 days prior to changing the residence of the child, or removing the child from this state for a period of time exceeding 90 days, and the notice goes by restricted mail, return receipt requested, to the last known address. There is no mileage threshold, so a move across town triggers the same duty as a move across the country. Under K.S.A. 23-3222(c) a change of residence or removal may be considered a material change of circumstances justifying modification, and on that motion the court weighs all factors it deems appropriate, including the effect of the move on the child's best interests, the effect on any party's rights under the article, and the increased cost the move imposes on a party exercising those rights. K.S.A. 23-3222(d) removes the notice duty as to a parent convicted of certain crimes in which the child was the victim.

Kansas treats it as a required consideration rather than a presumption. K.S.A. 23-3203(a)(9) lists evidence of domestic abuse among the factors the court shall consider, and defines it to include both a pattern or history of physically or emotionally abusive behavior, or the threat of it, used by one person to gain or maintain domination and control over an intimate partner or household member, and a discrete act of domestic violence, stalking or sexual assault. Beyond consideration, K.S.A. 23-3203(b) allows the court to order a parent to undergo a domestic violence offender assessment by a certified batterer intervention program and to comply with its recommendations, and K.S.A. 23-3214(a)(3) requires the court to inform parents about the impact of domestic abuse on children. There is a separate rebuttable presumption in K.S.A. 23-3205, but it addresses a parent residing with a person required to register as an offender or convicted of child abuse, which is a different situation. If abuse is present in your case, this is a matter for a lawyer.