Wisconsin Child Custody Laws

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When a couple divorces and there is a minor child involved, the divorce decree will specify who has physical custody as well as legal custody of the child. Physical custody determines where and with whom the child will live. Legal custody specifies who has the legal right to make important decisions about the child related to issues such as education, religion, medical issues, and discipline. Spouses often reach an agreement regarding child custody on their own, but if they do not, a Wisconsin court will intervene and establish custody arrangements based on the best interests of the child. Divorcesource.com provides a complete summary of divorce and custody laws in the state of Wisconsin.

 

There are typically several different custody arrangements that may be made for children of divorced parents. In most cases, courts will award physical custody to one parent with whom the child will live most of the time. The parent with physical custody, or the custodial parent, often shares legal custody, or the right to make decisions regarding the child, with the non-custodial parent. Many child custody arrangements involve joint custody in which the child spends a relatively equal amount of time with each parent.

 

According to Wisconsin law, the court may grant joint or sole custody. There is a presumption in favor of joint custody that requires both parents to share the child-rearing responsibilities and to approve all major decisions related to the child. In making a custody decision, the court will consider the best interests of the child as well as several other factors, including the following:

  • Wishes of the parents
  • Wishes of the child
  • Interaction and interrelationship of the child with his or her parents, siblings, and significant others
  • Amount and quality of time that each parent has spent with the child in the past
  • Child's adjustment to the home, school, religion, and community
  • Age of the child and the child's developmental and educational needs at different ages
  • Whether the mental or physical health of a person living in a proposed custodial household negatively affects the child's intellectual, physical, or emotional well-being
  • Need for regularly occurring and meaningful periods of physical placement
  • Availability of public or private child care services
  • Cooperation and communication between the parents
  • Whether each parent can support the other parent's relationship with the child
  • Whether there is evidence that a parent engaged in abuse
  • Whether either parent has or had a significant problem with alcohol or drug abuse

 

In Wisconsin, the court commonly grants the non-custodial parent rights of visitation so that the child and the non-custodial parent may maintain a parent-child relationship that is beneficial to the child, unless, however, the court finds that the visitation is likely to endanger the child's physical or emotional health. 

 

When the courts have not awarded the parents with the equal-time alternating residential care provision, and the parents cannot agree to exactly when visitation will occur, the standard visitation schedule accepted is every other weekend, four to six weeks during the summer, and alternating holidays. For a comprehensive review of child custody laws in Wisconsin, go to lawyers.com.