Child custody laws have become a necessity as a part of divorce that involves children in the United States.  Child custody laws will sometimes determine which parent will maintain custody of the children.  Also child custody laws will allow the parent with full custody or primary custody to receive child support payments.  Under a certain statutory provision, both parents have rights and both parents’ rights are equal.  It is not until a judge determines what exactly will happen as far as custody, will anyone know what will happen as far as custody goes. 

Each state differs on their child custody laws.  Some states actually break the custody into two areas.  There is physical custody and legal custody.  Legal custody can give a parent the right to make decisions about what schools a child might attend, or his religious education.  The child’s medical care may also be decided through legal custody.  This usually gives both parents an equal say in these decisions concerning raising the child.

Physical custody will actually determine which parent the child or children will live with.  Sometimes one parent is awarded physical custody and the other parent will be awarded visitation rights.  Although 95% of parents going through a divorce will decide that they would like joint custody of the children and work out their own custody arrangements and not have to have a judge decide.  Joint custody of a child will have the child spend 50% of their time with each parent.  This may mean that a child will literally live in two separate households.  They will travel back and forth a few times a week between homes.

In most states the judge will usually consider the child’s view providing the child is of a certain age.  When there are cases involving more than one child, a judge will usually keep the children together in one household.

Many child custody laws give each individual state the rights to make their own child custody laws.  Many states now use what is referred to as “parenting plans”.  It sounds much nicer that way.  It makes both parents feel like they are there to decide together as parents what will go on with their own children.

Again in most situations parents are able to decide among themselves what is best for their own children and a court is not necessary.  However there are cases where there are issues of abuse towards the children or perhaps drug use on the parent’s behalf.  In situations like these a court will always make a decision and not leave it up to the parents.  The court will follow the child custody laws of that particular state and decide what is in the child’s best interest.  In some cases custody is awarded to a family member and neither parent will obtain custody of the child or children.

In order to protect children from parental kidnapping almost all the states in the U.S. have passed the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act.  This child custody law has been passed in all states except Missouri, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.  This law basically sets guidelines to determine what state the child lives in.  if the child is too young to have lived in one state for six months the courts must decide what state the child has had “significant connections” with.  That way the court knows what states laws are going to be followed.  There was a time when parents would claim that since the child or children were physically living in a state with them that is where the laws should be followed.  Well that is all fine and good except when that parent has taken the children from a different state and from the other parent because a certain state’s laws would benefit them.

Since the child custody laws do differ so much from state to state it is important to have a law like that to determine the state to which the parents must listen to.  Divorce is never an easy thing.  But when you have children in the relationship it makes it much, much harder.  Most parents do agree between themselves what is best for the children but in some cases it is good to know that a child’s best interest is being protected by the child custody laws.