There is no “standard visitation” anywhere in any Illinois divorce or paternity statute, nothing in the Illinois Supreme Court Rules, and no guidelines or timetables in any local court rule.  I prefere to not use the term myself, it’s misleading and does not allow for creative custody arrangements.  If an attorney is already thinking “standard visitation” before any custody or parenting time is even discussed how can a parent, an attorney or a judge provide for the child’s best interest?

People visit “Aunt May” but don’t have any rights to spend time with her.  That’s different than your right to spend time and have a healthy relationship with your child.  Divorcing parents have known this for years.  Divorce attorneys have recognized this problem for almost as long.  The Illinois legislature is finally getting around to addressing the issue. Recognizing the connotation that one parent has “visitation rights” with a child, as opposed to parenting time, or just plainly “time”, the Illinois legislature has been working on redrafting the “visitation” section of the divorce act, but thus far has enacted any major changes.  While the current divorce act uses the word “visitation”, most attorneys use the term “parenting time” in lieu of “visitation” when structuring the Parenting Agreement.

As I’ve already told you, no-where in the divorce act, local court rule, or Supreme Court Rules is there a provision for “Standard Visitation”.  “Standard visitation” is a term attorney’s use to describe the parenting time “generally used” as a starting point.  ”Standard visitation” should be the time a child needs to spend with EACH parent to maintain a healthy and productive relationship with each.  That said, the general trend in courthouses is to begin with a minimum parenting schedule and adjust it according to the best interests of the child.  The minimum parenting schedule, absent some provable, concrete and valid reason to deviate from the minimum schedule is:

• Alternate weekends beginning sometime after school on Friday until sometime between 5 & 7 p.m. on Sunday;

• Alternating holidays;

• One evening every week;

• Father always gets the child on father’s birthday and Father’s Day;

• Mother always gets the child on Mother’s Day and mother’s birthday;

• 2-4 weeks during summer vacation;

• Division of Winter vacation and Spring Break.

This is the “minimum” or “basic” parenting schedule in a divorce or parentage case.  I use words like “generally” and “minimum” because no visitation schedule works in every case.  There are reasons for a parent to have less parenting time than the above structure and reasons to have more parenting time.  The parenting schedule ultimately arrived at in your case is, like everything else in a divorce case, fact specific–but most importantly, what is in the CHILD’S best interest.

Each parent’s time with the children also depends on what type of residential custody is finally arrived at in your case.  The above “basic” schedule for the non-residential parent is not untypical in a standard “joint custody” visitation scenario; however, if the parties agree (or the Judge decides) that some form of shared custody or split custody is appropriate, an entirely different type of parenting schedules have to be determined.