Cook County Child Custody Attorneys

In Illinois, child custody is called parental responsibilities, but the heart of the matter remains the same. If you’re facing a divorce that involves shared children, you need a child custody modification, or you’re facing another custody concern, protect your own and your children’s rights and best interests by working closely with an experienced Cook County child custody attorney.

Physical and Legal Custody

There are two categories of child custody –physical, also referred to as residential and legal. Legal custody pertains to who will continue making important decisions for your children in relation to the following:

• Their ongoing education
• Their religious education
• Their mental and physical health care
• Their extracurricular activities

Physical (residential) custody, on the other hand, refers to whom the children reside with – and according to what schedule. Both physical and legal custody can be either joint or sole. 

Negotiating a Parenting Time Schedule

Parenting time refers to the schedule that outlines when the children are with you and when they are with their other parent, and negotiating terms that you are both willing to sign off on can be one of the most difficult elements of your divorce. Regardless of whether you have joint custody or one of you has sole custody and the other has a parenting time schedule that acts as a visitation schedule, finding a middle ground can be complicated. 

If you ultimately turn to the court to settle this matter, its primary focus is always the best interest of the children, and toward this end – even when sole custody is awarded – the parent who isn’t the primary residential parent will still receive a visitation schedule. This is due to the court’s presumption that children’s needs are better served when the children are allowed to spend time with both parents. 

Primary Considerations

When it comes to your parenting time schedule, you’ll need to account for all of the following considerations (which have become more complicated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic):

• School Year Schedules – Scheduling for the school year involves keeping a lot of balls in the air (at the best of times). Now that many parents aren’t sure from month to month whether their children will continue going to school, will attend school online, or will engage in a complicated combination of the two, hammering out the school year schedule has become even trickier. Add to this the fact that many parents are working (or trying to work) from home, and it takes the matter to a whole new level.
• Schedules for Vacations and Breaks – You’ll also need to address a parenting schedule for when your children have vacations, holidays, and other scheduled breaks from school. Many schools have already truncated their school year in response to the pandemic, which throws another challenge into the mix.

Reach Out to an Experienced Cook County Child Custody Attorney Today

Finding child custody arrangements that accommodate your unique situation and schedule can be exceptionally complicated, but the resourceful Cook County child custody attorneys at The Law Offices of George M. Sanders have the skill, experience, and flexibility to help you do just that. We’re here for you, so please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information today.