Skip to content

How to Modify Child Custody in Arkansas

Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · Arkansas · Last updated October 7, 2026

Arkansas wrote a joint custody presumption into its code in 2021 and then limited it, in the same sentence, to original orders only. Modifying child custody here means asking the circuit court that entered your existing custody or visitation order to change it because something significant has changed since that order was made. The presumption in Ark. Code 9-13-101(a)(1)(A)(iv)(a), added by Act 604 of 2021, reaches only an action concerning an original child custody determination in a divorce or paternity matter. It does not carry into a modification, so the parent asking for a change still has to prove a material change in circumstances since the last order, and then that the change serves the child's best interest. Timing is not the obstacle. A scan of every live section of Title 9, Chapter 13 turns up no filing bar, no repeat motion clock and no heightened showing tied to elapsed time; the chapter's only timing phrase runs the other way, letting a court act on a conflict finding at any time under 9-13-101(b)(1)(A)(iii). There is also no statewide form. Arkansas publishes 135 statewide court forms and not one of them is a custody petition or motion, so your charging paper is drafted rather than filled in. You file it into the closed case number, and the clerk collects the $50 reopen fee set by Ark. Code 21-6-403(b)(3) instead of the $150 charged to open a new case. Keep following your current order until a judge signs a new one. Attorney review of your filing is available through DocDraft.

Find out where you stand in Arkansas

What is prompting the change to your custody order?

DocDraft provides document preparation, not legal advice.

How do I modify a child custody order in Arkansas?

Draft a motion to modify custody and file it into the same case number in the circuit court that entered your order. Arkansas prescribes no statewide form, so you write the pleading, attach the Domestic Relations Cover Sheet, pay the $50 reopen fee under Ark. Code 21-6-403(b)(3), and serve the other parent.

Is there a waiting period to modify custody in Arkansas?

No. Nothing in the Arkansas custody chapter bars or delays a motion to modify custody or visitation, and there is no repeat motion clock. The hurdle is evidentiary rather than calendar based: you must show a material change in circumstances since the last order plus the child's best interest.

How much notice must an Arkansas parent give before moving with a child?

Arkansas sets no statutory notice period and no mileage trigger. The word relocation does not appear anywhere in the custody chapter. What governs a move is the wording of your own order plus Arkansas case law, which treats a sole or primary custodian very differently from a joint custodian.

Which court changes a custody order in Arkansas?

The circuit court for the county that entered the order, through its domestic relations division. Arkansas has one general jurisdiction trial court following Amendment 80, and since January 1, 2002 each circuit court has carried five subject matter divisions: criminal, civil, probate, domestic relations and juvenile.

Arkansas custody modification at a glance

Changing child custody in Arkansas means asking the circuit court that entered your existing custody or visitation order to change it because something significant has happened since then. Two Arkansas features shape that request. First, the joint custody presumption added by Act 604 of 2021 is written to cover an original child custody determination in a divorce or paternity matter, so it does not travel into a modification; the moving parent still carries a material change plus best interest burden. Second, Arkansas supplies no clock and no paperwork. There is no waiting period in the custody chapter, and the state publishes no custody modification form among its 135 statewide court forms, so the motion is drafted from scratch and filed into the closed case for a $50 reopen fee.

A joint custody parent in Arkansas learns the presumption does not travel

Picture a 2023 Craighead County decree that split time with your daughter roughly equally and called it joint custody. The other parent now takes a job three hours away in south Arkansas and assumes the move is protected. It is not. Arkansas attaches no notice period and no mileage trigger to a move, but under Arkansas Supreme Court precedent the relocation presumption that shields a sole or primary custodian does not apply to a joint custodian, so the move is weighed as an ordinary change of custody question. You reopen the case for $50, plead the impracticality of the existing schedule as the material change, and ask for primary custody. Expect a parenting class or mediation referral. Attorney review of your filing is available through DocDraft.

Relevant Laws

Ark. Code Ann. 9-13-101 (award of custody and definition of joint custody)

Carries the Act 604 of 2021 joint custody presumption at (a)(1)(A)(iv)(a), limited by its own words to an action concerning an original child custody determination in a divorce or paternity matter. Also holds the child preference capacity test at (a)(1)(A)(ii), the willful conflict material change ground at (b)(1)(A)(iii), and the deployment reversion rule at (b)(1)(A)(iv).

Ark. Code Ann. 9-13-108 (visitation and preference of child)

Lets the circuit court consider the preferences of the child in a visitation dispute where the child is of sufficient age and capacity to reason, regardless of chronological age. Arkansas attaches no numeric age to a child's wishes in either the custody or the visitation provision.

Ark. Code Ann. 9-12-322 (parenting classes and mediation)

Permits the court, before or after entering a decree of divorce, to require at least two hours of classes on parenting issues or mediation addressing parenting, custody and visitation. Each party pays their own cost, and a party may move to dispense with the mediation referral for good cause shown.

Ark. Code Ann. 21-6-403 (uniform circuit court filing fees)

Sets $150 to initiate a cause of action in circuit court and $50 to reopen one. Subsection (e)(1)(A) applies the reopen fee where a final order has been entered and the new claim involves the same parties and the same issues, and subsection (f) bars counties and clerks from adding other filing fees.

Arkansas Judiciary statewide court forms catalog

The Administrative Office of the Courts publishes 135 statewide forms here. None is a custody petition or modification motion. The domestic relations entries are administrative attachments: the Domestic Relations Cover Sheet, the Domestic Relations Disposition Sheet, the Confidential Information Sheet, the Affidavit of Financial Means and the In Forma Pauperis Affidavit.

Regional Variances

Arkansas custody modification levers at a glance

Waiting period before you may file

None. A full text scan of every live section of Ark. Code Title 9, Chapter 13, plus 9-12-301, 9-12-312 and 9-12-322, returns zero hits for waiting period, shall not be filed, may not be filed and two years. The chapter's only timing phrase is affirmative: a court may act at any time under 9-13-101(b)(1)(A)(iii).

Standard to change an existing order

A material change in circumstances since the last order, then the child's best interest. This is judicial doctrine; no section of Chapter 13 states a modification standard. Arkansas does codify one standalone ground at 9-13-101(b)(1)(A)(iii), a proven pattern of willfully creating conflict to disrupt joint custody where the court cannot cure it by order.

Joint custody presumption

Scoped, and this is the detail most sources drop. Ark. Code 9-13-101(a)(1)(A)(iv)(a) presumes joint custody is in the child's best interest only in an action concerning an original child custody determination in a divorce or paternity matter. It does not shift the burden in a modification. Rebuttal routes include clear and convincing evidence, party agreement, or one party simply not requesting custody.

Relocation notice and distance trigger

Neither exists. The string relocation returns zero hits and the string mile returns zero hits across the whole custody chapter, so there is no notice period, no objection window, no deemed consent and no distance threshold of any polarity. A move is governed by the terms of the individual order and by Arkansas case law, which gives a sole or primary custodian a presumption in favor of relocation and gives a joint custodian none.

Court

Circuit court, domestic relations division, in the county that entered the order, filed under the original case number. Amendment 80 took effect July 1, 2001 and merged law and equity into a single general jurisdiction trial court; the five subject matter divisions have run since January 1, 2002.

Forms

No statewide custody modification form. The motion is drafted. The statewide papers that do attach are the Domestic Relations Cover Sheet, the Domestic Relations Disposition Sheet, the Confidential Information Sheet, the Affidavit of Financial Means where support is in issue, and the In Forma Pauperis Affidavit.

Filing fee

$50 to reopen the existing case under Ark. Code 21-6-403(b)(3), which is the normal post decree route where the parties and issues are the same. $150 under 21-6-403(b)(1) if a new cause of action has to be opened instead. Subsection (f) bars any additional clerk filing fee, and 21-6-403(c) allows an in forma pauperis waiver.

Procedural screen

No affidavit screen and no adequate cause gate; the word affidavit returns zero hits across the scanned custody sections. What Arkansas has is a discretionary referral under 9-12-322 to at least two hours of parenting classes or to mediation, available before or after a decree, with a good cause motion to dispense with mediation.

Child's wishes

No numeric age. Ark. Code 9-13-101(a)(1)(A)(ii) uses sufficient age and mental capacity to reason, regardless of chronological age, for custody, and 9-13-108 uses sufficient age and capacity to reason for visitation. Both say may consider, so a preference is weighed, never controlling.

Suggested Compliance Checklist

Identify the custody label in your existing order

Before you plan anything days after starting

Pull the decree and write down the exact term it uses. Sole, primary and joint custody carry different burdens in Arkansas, and on a move the label decides whether you get a presumption or none. Ark. Code 9-13-101(a)(5) defines joint custody as an approximately equal division of time with the child.

Document the material change since the order

Before you file days after starting

Gather dated proof of what has shifted: school records, work rosters, messages, medical notes, a record of refused exchanges. The 2021 joint custody presumption is limited to original determinations, so it will not carry your modification. The evidence is the request.

Draft the motion to modify custody

As soon as the evidence is assembled days after starting

Arkansas prescribes no statewide form for this, so draft the pleading. Identify the order you want changed, state the change in circumstances since it was entered, and set out the specific custody or visitation schedule you are asking the circuit court to enter instead.

Assemble the statewide attachments

Before you go to the clerk days after starting

Complete the Domestic Relations Cover Sheet and the Confidential Information Sheet from the Arkansas Judiciary forms catalog. Add the Affidavit of Financial Means if support is in issue, and the In Forma Pauperis Affidavit if you are asking for the fee to be waived under Ark. Code 21-6-403(c).

File under the original case number and pay the reopen fee

Promptly, since hearing dates run weeks out days after starting

File with the circuit clerk in the county that entered the order, using the same case number. Ark. Code 21-6-403(b)(3) sets the reopen fee at $50 where the parties and issues match the original case; a fresh cause of action costs $150 under 21-6-403(b)(1).

Serve the other parent and file proof of service

By the court's service deadline days after starting

Have the other parent served with the stamped motion and every attachment, then file the proof with the clerk. Without proof on file the judge generally cannot change the order at your hearing, and the date gets pushed back.

Complete any parenting class or mediation referral

Before your hearing date days after starting

Ark. Code 9-12-322 lets the court require at least two hours of parenting classes or mediation on parenting, custody and visitation, before or after a decree, with each party paying their own cost. Arrive with a specific written schedule proposal including exchange times and places.

Keep following the current order, including the exchange rules

Until a judge signs a new order days after starting

A unilateral departure is an enforcement issue and can count against you. Remember Ark. Code 9-13-104 as well: when both parents are present, the handover may not take place on public elementary or secondary school property on normal school days during normal school hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Other Arkansas guides

Adverse Possession in Arkansas: Seven Years, Plus the 1995 Tax and Title Requirement

Arkansas Notice to Vacate: 2026 Landlord Rules, 3-Day & 10-Day Tracks

Asset Protection Planning in Arkansas (2026)

Dealing With Debt Collectors in Arkansas (2026)

Expunging a Criminal Record in Arkansas (2026)

Filing a Workplace Harassment Complaint in Arkansas

Ready to Draft Your Document?

Get AI-powered legal documents with attorney review included. Plans start at $39.99/mo.

Get Started