The 2016 rewrite of Illinois’s custody laws provided a radical change that we often overlook. Yes, we know the terms “parenting time” and parental decision-making. But lawyers often overlook how the Rewrite changed the law based on the expansive definition of caretaking functions.
View the expansive vision of caretaking functions as a shift from a co-parenting to a parallel parenting paradigm. We expect co-parents to work together to address issues involving their minor children. With a parallel parenting plan, the parents don’t try to micromanage what occurs during the other parent’s parenting time. Focus on being a great parent during your own parenting time and communication in a limited but respectful way.
First, consider how broadly Illinois defines “Caretaking functions.”
These include tasks that involve “interaction with a child or that direct, arrange, and supervise the interaction with and care of a child provided by others, or for obtaining the resources allowing for the provision of these functions.”
Illinois law continues with the expansive definition stating that the term includes, but isn’t limited to, the following:
- Satisfying a child’s nutritional needs; managing a child’s bedtime and wake-up routines; caring for a child when the child is sick or injured; being attentive to a child’s personal hygiene needs, including washing, grooming, and dressing; playing with a child and ensuring the child attends scheduled extracurricular activities; protecting a child’s physical safety; and providing transportation for a child;
- Directing a child’s various developmental needs, including the acquisition of motor and language skills, toilet training, self-confidence, and maturation;
- Providing discipline, giving instruction in manners, assigning and supervising chores, and performing other tasks that attend to a child’s needs for behavioral control and self-restraint;
- Ensuring the child attends school, including remedial and special services appropriate to the child’s needs and interests, communicating with teachers and counselors, and supervising homework;
- Helping a child develop and maintain appropriate interpersonal relationships with peers, siblings, and other family members;
- Ensuring the child attends medical appointments and is available for medical follow-up and meeting the medical needs of the child in the home
- Providing moral and ethical guidance for a child; and
- Arranging alternative care for a child by a family member, babysitter, or other child care provider or facility, including investigating such alternatives, communicating with providers, and supervising such care.
This is broad, indeed!
That’s especially the case given how Illinois law defines parenting time−a concept at the core of our Rewrite. It means “the time during which a parent is responsible for exercising caretaking functions and non-significant decision-making responsibilities with respect to the child.”
So what does all of that mean?
It means that when a parent has parenting time, unless it’s restricted, a parent has broad authority to exercise parental guidance and supervision.
And the law regarding restrictions on parenting responsibilities requires proof:
that a parent engaged in any conduct that seriously endangered the child’s mental, moral, or physical health or that significantly impaired the child’s emotional development.
Finally, Illinois law presumes that “both parents are fit.” The law then states that “the court shall not place any restrictions on parenting time” unless it finds by a preponderance of the evidence that a parent’s exercise of parenting time would seriously endanger the child’s physical, mental, moral, or emotional health.”
See: The Gitlin Law Firm’s Q&A re Restricting Parenting Time.
