COOPERATIVE PARENTING FOR DIVIDED FAMILIES

Legal Custody: The legal right to make major decisions affecting the best interest of a minor child, including but not limited to, medical, religion and educational decision.

Physical (Primary) Custody: Means actual physical possession and control of a child. The Parent with primary custody makes all of the major decision in the children's lives and the children reside with that parent about 60% or more of overnights in a year.

Shared Custody: Means shared legal or shared physical custody or both of a child in such a way as to assure the child of frequent and continuing contact, including physical access, to both parents.

Shared Physical Custody: Parents with shared custody (sometimes called joint custody) reside with their children between 60% and 40% of overnights in a year.

Shared Legal Custody: The parents with shared legal custody should be cooperating in all major decisions in the children's live. Shared physical custody is nor a prerequisite for shared legal custody. Shared legal custody, generally, is not effective for a parent with partial custody and a recalcitrant parent with primary custody.

Partial Custody: The parent with partial custody is generally not involved in major decision in the children's lives and the children reside with that parent less than 40% or more of overnight in a year. Allegheny County judges label "Liberal Visitation" as 15% of overnights in a given year. Pennsylvania support guidelines label "Routine Visitation" as 30 % of overnights. "Partial custody" means the right to take possession of a child away from the custodial parent for a certain period of time.

Visitation: The right to visit a child but does not include the right to remove the child from the custodial parents control. The term "Visitation" is misused by the court and parents involved in custody actions. Visitation is limited to situations of abuse and sometimes suspected abuse in which the accused parents is limited to how, when and with whom he or she may be with his or her children. Typically, a relative, officer of the court, or a contracted and paid party, supervises visitation by the parents doing the visiting.

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