Wyoming Child Custody Agreement
Wyoming's statutes never mention a parenting agreement, so the work is making your terms specific enough for a judge to enter as a well defined decree.
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Introduction
Wyoming's custody statutes never mention a parenting agreement. The Custody and Visitation article, Wyo. Stat. 20-2-201 through 20-2-205, says nothing about a parenting plan, a stipulation, a consent decree, or mediation, and nothing in it tells a court what to do with terms the parents have already settled. What it does instead is give the district court an open power under 20-2-201(a) to make by decree or order any disposition of the children that appears most expedient and in the best interests of the children, guided by eleven factors the same section lists. The contrast inside the statute book is the useful part. When the Wyoming legislature wanted a submit, review, and approve procedure for an agreement between parents, it wrote one, at 20-2-307(d), and it wrote one only for child support. So agreeing changes nothing that the Wyoming custody statute recognizes, and the practical task is different from most states: 20-2-201(d) requires the court to order custody in well defined terms to promote understanding and compliance by the parties, and your agreement has to be specific enough to become that order.
Key Things to Know
- 1
Wyoming law gives a parental agreement no special status. No section of the Custody and Visitation article attaches a presumption to an agreement, directs a court to adopt agreed terms, or names the parents' agreement as a best interest factor. Wyo. Stat. 20-2-201(a) commits the disposition of the children to what appears most expedient and in the best interests of the children in the court's judgment, with no deference clause of any kind, and 20-2-201(d) separately commands the court to order custody in well defined terms. That leaves no space for a custody agreement that operates on its own.
- 2
The silence is a choice rather than an oversight, and there is a provision that shows it. Wyo. Stat. 20-2-307(d) sets out a full submit, review, and approve or disapprove regime for an agreement between parents, under which the court reviews the agreement and tells the parties whether more information is needed or whether the agreement is approved or disapproved. That provision covers child support only. Wyoming has no parallel provision for custody, and child support remains a separate calculation that a custody agreement does not settle.
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There is no parenting plan in Wyoming, but the detail requirement still lands on you. No Wyoming statute requires parents to file a plan or prescribes what one must contain, so any instruction to file your parenting plan with the court is wrong here. What the statute does is put the detail duty on the court: 20-2-201(d) requires custody to be ordered in well defined terms to promote understanding and compliance by the parties, and 20-2-202(a)(i) requires visitation to be ordered in enough detail to promote understanding and compliance. A decree has to end up specific, so the agreement you hand up has to be specific first.
- 4
Wyoming forbids the court to lean in any direction. Wyo. Stat. 20-2-201(d) provides that in determining custody a court shall not favor or disfavor any form of custody, that custody shall be crafted to promote the best interests of the children, and that it may include any combination of joint, shared or sole custody. Section 20-2-201(b) adds that the court shall not prefer one parent as a custodian solely because of gender. There is no joint custody presumption and no primary caretaker or maternal preference to work with or against.
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The three custody labels Wyoming names are not defined anywhere in its statutes. Joint, shared and sole custody appear at 20-2-201(d), and 20-2-201(a) uses the phrase each period of responsibility, but none of those terms carries a statutory definition that would fill in what you mean. Definitions of legal and physical custody do appear elsewhere in the title, but they belong to the interstate jurisdiction chapter and should not be imported into an agreement. The practical consequence is that a Wyoming agreement has to define its own terms and spell out the schedule rather than rely on a label.
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Wyo. Stat. 20-2-201(a) lists eleven best interest factors, and the preamble says the court shall consider, but is not limited to, those factors, with the eleventh being any other factors the court deems necessary and relevant. The list is weighted toward how the parents will work together: each parent's willingness to accept all parenting responsibilities including accepting care at specified times and relinquishing care to the other parent, how the parents and each child can best maintain and strengthen a relationship with each other, how they interact and communicate and how that may be improved, and each parent's ability and willingness to allow the other to provide care without intrusion and to respect the other parent's rights including the right to privacy. It is also notable for what it leaves out: there is no factor for the child's own wishes, no stability of environment factor, and no sibling factor. The only child focused entries are the quality of each child's relationship with each parent and the geographic distance between the parents' residences.
- 7
Wyoming's relocation rule is a bare notice duty. Wyo. Stat. 20-2-202(a)(iii) requires the court to order either parent who plans to change their home city or state of residence to give written notice thirty days before the move, both to the other parent and to the clerk of district court, stating the date and destination. There is no permission requirement, no mileage threshold, no objection form, and no hearing procedure attached to it, and the duty falls on both parents rather than only the one the child lives with. Where a confidentiality order is in place, the address, city or state of residence and other information identifying a domestic abuse victim's residence stays confidential, so a survivor can give notice without disclosing where they are going.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Child Custody Agreement in Wyoming, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Child Custody Agreement guide walks through them.
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Wyoming Requirements for Child Custody Agreement
The court may make by decree or order any disposition of the children that appears most expedient and in the best interests of the children. No provision gives an agreement a presumption or obliges the court to adopt agreed terms, so the document is a proposal for a decree rather than a self-executing arrangement.
In determining custody a court shall not favor or disfavor any form of custody, and custody may include any combination of joint, shared or sole custody. There is no joint custody presumption to rely on and no preference to overcome.
The court shall not prefer one parent as a custodian solely because of gender. Arguments framed around which parent is the mother or the father have no statutory support in Wyoming.
The court shall consider, but is not limited to, eleven listed factors, most of which measure how the parents will cooperate: accepting and relinquishing care at specified times, maintaining and strengthening relationships, interaction and communication and how it may be improved, and allowing the other parent to provide care without intrusion. There is no factor for the child's wishes, none for stability, and none for siblings.
The court shall order custody in well defined terms to promote understanding and compliance by the parties. Since Wyoming does not define joint, shared or sole custody, define your own terms and set out each period of responsibility with dates and times rather than relying on a label.
The court shall order visitation in enough detail to promote understanding and compliance. Write the schedule with exchange times, exchange locations, and what happens over holidays and school breaks, because a vague schedule cannot be entered in that form.
The order must provide for the allocation of the costs of transporting each child for purposes of visitation. Include an allocation clause in the agreement so the court has terms to enter.
The order must require either parent planning to change their home city or state of residence to give written notice thirty days before the move, to the other parent and to the clerk of district court, stating the date and destination. A confidentiality order keeps a domestic abuse victim's identifying residence information confidential.
The court shall consider evidence of spousal abuse or child abuse as being contrary to the best interest of the children, and on a finding that family violence has occurred it shall make arrangements for visitation that best protect the children and the abused spouse from further harm. This is a mandatory consideration rather than a presumption, and it shifts no burden.
Either parent may petition to enforce a custody or visitation order, and on a showing of willful violation the court may hold a parent in contempt and award attorney's fees and costs. Modification requires a material change in circumstances since entry of the order plus a finding that the change is in the children's best interests under 20-2-201(a).
Frequently Asked Questions
Not as a matter of Wyoming statute. The Custody and Visitation article says nothing about parenting agreements, stipulations, consent decrees or mediation, and it does not name the parents' agreement as a best interest factor or attach any presumption to it. Wyo. Stat. 20-2-201(a) leaves the disposition of the children to what appears most expedient and in the best interests of the children, and 20-2-201(d) commands the court to order custody in well defined terms. That does not make an agreement pointless, but its value is practical rather than legal: it is what lets the court enter a detailed order without a fight.
Yes, in the sense that only the court can turn it into something enforceable. Wyoming has no statutory submission and approval procedure for a custody agreement, so the ordinary route is to present your agreed terms in the divorce, judicial separation, annulment or paternity action and ask the court to incorporate them into the decree under Wyo. Stat. 20-2-201(a). Until that happens there is no order to enforce, and 20-2-204(b)'s contempt remedy is tied to violation of an order.
No. Wyoming has no parenting plan requirement and no parenting plan instrument in its statutes, and no section prescribes what such a document would contain. The detail requirement sits on the court instead: 20-2-201(d) requires custody to be ordered in well defined terms, 20-2-202(a)(i) requires visitation in enough detail to promote understanding and compliance, and 20-2-202(a)(ii) requires the order to allocate the costs of transporting the child for visitation. So the document you write still has to be specific, because the order it becomes must be.
Neither. Wyo. Stat. 20-2-201(d) says that in determining custody a court shall not favor or disfavor any form of custody, that custody shall be crafted to promote the best interests of the children, and that it may include any combination of joint, shared or sole custody. Section 20-2-201(b) adds that the court shall not prefer one parent as a custodian solely because of gender. There is no joint custody presumption and no caretaker preference either way.
Wyo. Stat. 20-2-201(a) lists eleven, and says the court shall consider, but is not limited to, those factors. They cover the quality of each child's relationship with each parent, each parent's ability to provide adequate care including arranging care by others, the relative competency and fitness of each parent, each parent's willingness to accept all parenting responsibilities including accepting and relinquishing care at specified times, how the parents and each child can best maintain and strengthen a relationship, how they interact and communicate and how that may be improved, each parent's ability and willingness to allow the other to provide care without intrusion and to respect the other's rights including privacy, geographic distance between the parents' residences, the current physical and mental ability of each parent to care for each child, any conviction requiring registration as a sex offender under Wyo. Stat. 7-19-301 through 7-19-310, and any other factors the court deems necessary and relevant.
Not as a listed factor. Unlike most states, Wyoming's eleven factors at 20-2-201(a) contain no factor for the child's own wishes or preference, and there is no stability of environment factor and no sibling factor either. The list is open, since the preamble says the court is not limited to those factors and the eleventh is any other factors the court deems necessary and relevant, so a judge is not shut out from hearing about it. It is simply not something the statute directs the court to weigh.
Thirty days, and the notice goes to two places. Wyo. Stat. 20-2-202(a)(iii) requires the court to order either parent who plans to change their home city or state of residence to give written notice thirty days before the move, both to the other parent and to the clerk of district court, stating the date and destination. There is no permission requirement, no mileage threshold and no objection procedure in the statute, and the duty falls on both parents. Where an order lets a party keep their address confidential, information identifying a domestic abuse victim's residence stays confidential.
The statute does not require permission. Wyo. Stat. 20-2-202(a)(iii) imposes a thirty day written notice duty and nothing more: there is no motion for permission, no list of legitimate purposes, and no burden placed on the moving parent. What the statute leaves open is the substantive question, which Wyoming courts decide. If the other parent wants the arrangement changed because of a move, they petition under 20-2-204(c) and must show a material change in circumstances plus best interests.
Wyo. Stat. 20-2-201(c) directs the court to consider evidence of spousal abuse or child abuse as being contrary to the best interest of the children, and provides that if the court finds family violence has occurred, it shall make arrangements for visitation that best protects the children and the abused spouse from further harm. That is a mandatory consideration with its weight pre-assigned rather than a presumption: it shifts no burden and does not bar or limit a custody award, and the statute lists no menu of protective conditions. Wyoming's one true custody presumption is a different rule, at 20-2-202(b), which presumes that unsupervised visitation is not in a child's best interests for a parent required to register as a sex offender. If abuse is part of your situation, talk to a lawyer before signing anything.
Through the court. Under Wyo. Stat. 20-2-204(c) a court may modify an order only on a showing by either parent of a material change in circumstances since the entry of the order in question and that the modification would be in the best interests of the children under 20-2-201(a). Agreeing between yourselves does not change the order, so a new arrangement is submitted for entry the same way the first one was.