Florida Joins the Equal Shared Parenting Club

Florida just enacted a law that creates a rebuttable presumption of equal shared parenting when parents divorce. It is the fourth U.S. State with an explicit presumption that children will continue to have the equal involvement of both of their parents when the parents divorce unless there is evidence that this is not in their best interest.

Kentucky, as the result of the work of NPO’s Matt Hale, was the first state to enact explicit presumptions of equal shared parenting—in 2017 for temporary orders and in 2018 for final orders. In 2021, Arkansas joined the equal shared parenting club. And in 2021, West Virginia joined.

The Florida legislature has previously passed bills that would create a presumption of equal shared parenting, first in 2016 and then in 2022. Both bills also included provisions to revise Florida’s alimony laws. The 2016 bill was vetoed by (then) Governor Rick Scott. Last year, Governor DeSantis vetoed a similar bill, indicating that he believed that some provisions of the alimony reform were unconstitutional. It was unclear whether Governor DeSantis would sign a “clean” equal shared parenting presumption bill. That unclarity was resolved yesterday when Governor DeSantis signed into law CS/HB1301 the “Parenting and Time-Sharing of Minor Children” bill.  NPO Vice-Chair Matt Hale supported the effort to encourage DeSantis to sign the bill by writing him a letter in support.

The core provision of CS/HB1301 reads as follows. (Underlined text is added to the Florida statutes; strikethrough text is deleted.)

Unless Except as otherwise provided in this section or agreed to by the parties paragraph, there is a no rebuttable presumption that equal for or against the father or mother of the child or for or against any specific time-sharing of a minor child is in the best interests of the minor child. To rebut this presumption, a party must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that equal timesharing is not in the best interests of the minor child. Except when a time-sharing schedule is agreed to by the parties and approved by the court, the court must evaluate all of the factors set forth in subsection (3) and make specific written findings of fact schedule when creating or modifying a timesharing schedule the parenting plan of the child.

The law promises to be popular with Florida voters. An independent survey commissioned in 2021 by National Parents Organization found overwhelming support for shared parenting, with 96% of those responding indicating that shared parenting is in the best interest of children and 83% in favor of changing Florida law to award children as much time as possible with each parent following divorce or separation.

Congratulations to Florida for taking this important step to ensure that parental separation doesn’t lead to parental deprivation.