Child Custody Agreement - West Virginia

Child Custody Agreement and Proposed Parenting Plan

State of West Virginia, Family Court of [COUNTY] County

Case number: [________________________________]

Date signed: [__/__/____]

Before you use this: The proposed plan filed with the court must be verified and contain the information required by W. Va. Code § 48-9-205(a). Complete the verification and all applicable schedules below, attach required financial information, and present any safety concern to the court.

Parent A, [FULL NAME], and Parent B, [FULL NAME], agree to request the custodial and decision-making order stated here. The court may reject an agreement that is not knowing and voluntary or would harm a child. W. Va. Code § 48-9-201. Existing court orders govern until changed by a court order.

1. Parents, children, and filing information

Other individuals with standing in this action, and their addresses: [________________________________].

Adults with whom each child has lived for one year or more, or since birth if under one year, with address and length of residence: [________________________________].

Existing custody, support, or protection orders and case numbers: [________________________________].

Other proposed parenting plan in this case, if any; known agreements and disagreements: [________________________________].

Required financial information: ☐ Attached as a separate filing ☐ Already filed, docket entry [____________].

2. Caretaking history and expected schedules

Child's school, care, medical, and extracurricular schedule and special needs: [________________________________].

3. Custodial allocation and regular schedule

The parents request: ☐ Equal custodial time ☐ The different allocation in the completed schedule below. W. Va. Code §§ 48-9-102a, 48-9-206 permit an agreed allocation subject to court review and the child's welfare.

Cycle begins [__/__/____] and repeats as follows: [________________________________]. Differences for a particular child: [________________________________].

If the parents live far apart, the workable school-year and travel schedule is: [________________________________].

4. Holidays, summer, and exchanges

A completed special period overrides the regular schedule. An unfilled period follows the regular schedule.

School-closure and summer schedule if different: [________________________________].

Vacation selection method, lead time, and conflict rule: [________________________________].

Transport responsibility: ☐ Receiving parent picks up ☐ Departing parent delivers ☐ School or care provider exchange ☐ Other [________________________________].

Protected or supervised exchange terms, if ordered: [________________________________]. Contact method if delayed: [________________________________].

Optional first offer of care when a parent is unavailable for more than [____] hours: offer method [____________], response time [____], exceptions [________________________________].

5. Significant decisions and communication

Unless the parents agree otherwise or the court orders otherwise, the parent exercising custodial responsibility makes day-to-day and emergency health or safety decisions while the child is in that parent's care. W. Va. Code § 48-9-207(c). The deciding parent will notify the other as soon as reasonably practicable.

Parent-to-parent information sharing method and agreed time: [________________________________]. Child contact during the other parent's time: [________________________________].

6. Safety, court services, and disputes

Safety issue, relevant conduct under W. Va. Code § 48-9-209, protective order, case number, and jurisdiction: [________________________________].

Requested limitations, supervision, safe exchange, or protected address procedure: [________________________________]. The court will determine any protective terms. A protected address should be submitted through the court's confidential procedure, not written into a copy served on an unsafe recipient. W. Va. Code § 48-9-205(a)-(b).

The parents may resolve ordinary implementation disagreements by [COMMUNICATION METHOD] and may use court-ordered services. If they cannot agree to a plan, the court's mediation process and safety screening under W. Va. Code § 48-9-202 govern. This agreement imposes no private waiting period before a parent seeks needed court relief.

If a parent violates an entered plan, the other may request court relief. The parents propose this remedy for a proven violation, subject to court approval: [COMPLIANCE / APPROPRIATE REPLACEMENT TIME / OTHER: ________________________________]. Disputes and proposed remedies will be presented through the court's applicable process. W. Va. Code § 48-9-205(c)(3).

7. Relocation and later changes

A parent changing or intending to change residence while responsible under a parenting plan must follow W. Va. Code § 48-9-403(b): file a verified modification petition and serve persons allocated custodial time by the existing order. The statute ordinarily requires filing at least 90 days before relocation and service of summons at least 60 days before, with an impracticability qualification. The petition must include the proposed date, new address, specific reasons, proposed custodial change, and hearing request. This agreement is not that future petition. Any relocation dispute or later plan modification will be submitted to the court under §§ 48-9-401 and 48-9-403.

Address or safe contact method for future court notices: [________________________________].

8. Support and military contingency

Child support, health coverage, and financial terms are governed by: ☐ Existing order, case [____________], payment [AMOUNT / FREQUENCY: ________________________________] ☐ Separate proposed support terms filed with this plan, docket or attachment [____________] ☐ Court determination requested with support information filed under Section 1. This agreement does not itself change an existing support order.

If either parent is a National Guard, reserve, or active duty member and is mobilized, deployed, or called to active duty, the proposed temporary care arrangement is [________________________________], with child contact [________________________________] and the proposed return schedule [________________________________]. W. Va. Code § 48-9-205(c)(5).

9. Signatures, verification, and proposed order

Each parent signs knowingly and voluntarily and asks the court to enter the completed terms, subject to findings and changes required for the child's welfare.

Parent A signature: [________________________________] Date: [__/__/____]

Parent B signature: [________________________________] Date: [__/__/____]

Verification: Each signing parent verifies that the factual statements supplied by that parent in this proposed plan are true to the best of that parent's knowledge and belief.

Parent A verified signature: [________________________________] Date: [__/__/____]

Parent B verified signature: [________________________________] Date: [__/__/____]

Sworn or affirmed before me by [PARENT NAME] on [__/__/____].

Notary: [________________________________] Commission expiration: [__/__/____]

Sworn or affirmed before me by [PARENT NAME] on [__/__/____].

Notary: [________________________________] Commission expiration: [__/__/____]

For court use: ☐ Approved and incorporated into the order ☐ Approved with these changes: [________________________________] ☐ Rejected; separate order controls.

Judge: [________________________________] Order date: [__/__/____]

Sources and References

• West Virginia Code Article 48-9, Parenting Plans
• W. Va. Code § 48-9-403, Relocation