TENNESSEE

Tennessee's PTA appropriately results in no presumptive child support transfer payment when parental income and parenting time are both equal.

Tennessee's PTA has a very high threshold of 92 days.

Tennessee's PTA has a large discontinuity (or discontinuities), creating a large cliff effect or multiple cliff effects.

Tennessee's PTA doesn't recognize the fixed, duplicated costs involved in shared parenting.

Tennessee's PTA does not take into account the effect on the payer parent's household.

Tennessee statutes require courts to consider a “friendly parent” factor in determining a child’s best interest for custody decisions.

Tennessee statutes define a non-custodial parent’s rights to receive school and medical records for the child and to have unimpeded telephone and mail contact with the child. TENN. CODE ANN. § 36-6-106

Tennessee statute which “permits both parents to enjoy the maximum participation possible in the life of the child” encourages shared parenting. TENN. CODE ANN. § 36-6-106

Tennessee statutes treat false allegations of abuse as a factor in custody decisions or provide for sanctions.

TENN. CODE ANN. § 36-6-114

Tennessee has no statutory preference for, or presumption of, shared parenting (joint legal custody and shared physical custody) for temporary or final orders. Indeed, Tennessee statutes explicitly reject any such preference or presumption TENN. CODE ANN. § 36-6-101. (It is only when the parents agree to joint custody that Tennessee presumes that joint custody is in the child’s best interest.)

Tennessee statutes do not explicitly provide for shared parenting during temporary orders.

“Maximum participation” can be broadly interpreted and does not rise to the level of a maximum parenting time provision.

Tennessee has conflicting clauses which promote “maximum participation” on one hand but, on the other, state “neither a preference nor a presumption for or against joint legal custody, joint physical custody or sole custody is established, but the court shall have the widest discretion to order a custody arrangement that is in the best interest of the child.”