A parenting plan in Washington is the court-ordered document required under Wash. Rev. Code § 26.09.184 that sets the residential schedule, decision-making authority, and dispute-resolution process for your child. Washington replaced the word "custody" with the parenting plan in 1987. Every dissolution involving minor children must include one, and a new mandatory form took effect July 27, 2025.
Key Facts: Washington Parenting Plans
| Factor | Washington Rule |
|---|---|
| Filing Fee | $314-$364 depending on county (King, Pierce, Snohomish $314; Lincoln $364). As of March 2026. Verify with your local clerk. |
| Waiting Period | 90 days minimum from filing AND service (RCW 26.09.030) |
| Residency Requirement | No minimum duration; must be a Washington resident on the filing date (RCW 26.09.030) |
| Grounds | No-fault only: marriage is "irretrievably broken" |
| Property Division Type | Community property, divided "just and equitable" |
| Governing Statute | RCW 26.09.184 (permanent parenting plan) |
| Custody Terminology | "Parenting plan," "residential schedule," "decision-making" (not "custody") |
What Is a Parenting Plan in Washington?
A parenting plan Washington courts require is a single legal document that governs where a child lives, who makes major decisions, and how parents resolve disagreements. Under RCW 26.09.184, every permanent parenting plan must contain three core components: a residential schedule, an allocation of decision-making authority, and a process for resolving future disputes. Washington abolished the term "custody" in 1987.
The parenting plan replaces what other states call a custody agreement. It applies to every divorce, legal separation, and paternity case involving minor children. The statute lists five statutory objectives: providing for the child's physical care, maintaining the child's emotional stability, providing for the child's changing needs as they grow, setting a clear framework for parental authority, and minimizing the child's exposure to harmful parental conflict. A court will not finalize a dissolution involving children without an approved permanent parenting plan, and the document becomes a binding court order enforceable through contempt proceedings under RCW 26.09.160.
The Residential Schedule (Parenting Time)
The residential schedule is the heart of a Washington parenting plan and must designate, for every day of the year, in which parent's home the child resides. Under RCW 26.09.187, this schedule must address regular weekly time, school breaks, holidays, birthdays, vacations, and special occasions. The 2025 mandatory form places this in Attachment R (a 6-page residential schedule exhibit).
Washington does not start from a presumption of 50/50 time. Instead, RCW 26.09.187 directs the court to weigh seven factors, with the greatest weight given to the relative strength, nature, and stability of each child's relationship with each parent. The remaining factors include each parent's past performance of parenting functions and their potential for future performance, the child's emotional needs and developmental level, the child's relationship with siblings and other significant adults, each parent's employment schedule, the wishes of the parents, and the wishes of a child mature enough to express a reasoned preference. The statute permits a substantially equal co-parenting schedule where the limiting factors do not apply and equal time serves the child's best interests, but courts require parents who live close together and communicate well before ordering frequent alternation between homes.
Decision-Making Authority
Decision-making authority in a Washington parenting plan must be allocated for three statutory categories: the child's education, health care, and religious upbringing, under RCW 26.09.184. The court assigns each category to one parent (sole decision-making) or both parents (joint decision-making). Day-to-day decisions always belong to whichever parent the child is with at the time.
Joint decision-making sounds ideal but is appropriate only when parents communicate effectively and no limiting factors exist. Under RCW 26.09.187, the court orders sole decision-making when the parents cannot cooperate, when one parent opposes mutual decision-making, or when a limiting factor under the restrictions statute applies. Three exceptions override any allocation: either parent may make emergency decisions affecting the child's health or safety, each parent controls day-to-day care while the child resides with them, and when designated mutual decision-making breaks down the parents must use the dispute-resolution process in good faith before going to court. Religious upbringing is the one category courts hesitate to assign to a single parent because of constitutional concerns, so plans frequently leave each parent free to share their faith during their own residential time.
Dispute Resolution and Co-Parenting
Every Washington parenting plan must designate a dispute-resolution process other than going back to court, unless a limiting factor makes that inappropriate, under RCW 26.09.184. The most common options are counseling, mediation, or arbitration by a named individual or agency. The plan must give preference to carrying out the existing parenting plan during any dispute.
This co-parenting schedule mechanism is enforced with real teeth. If a court finds that a parent used or frustrated the dispute-resolution process without good reason, RCW 26.09.184 requires the court to award attorney's fees and financial sanctions to the other parent. Either parent retains the right to seek superior court review of the dispute-resolution outcome, and these provisions must be written into the final decree. In practice, most plans require parents to attempt mediation before filing any motion to modify or enforce the residential schedule. Domestic violence and the limiting factors under the restrictions statute remove the mediation requirement, because forcing an abuse survivor into mediation with an abuser is unsafe. Many counties also require parents to complete an approved parenting class (often "4 Kids' Sake") within roughly two months of filing, a requirement set by local court rule rather than state statute.
The 2025 Mandatory Parenting Plan Form
A new mandatory parenting plan form took effect July 27, 2025, reorganizing how Washington handles restrictions on parenting time. The redesign created a modular attachment system and split the former limitations statute into two sections: RCW 26.09.191 (general limitations) and the new RCW 26.09.192 (sexual abuse of a child or sex offenses against a child).
The new form uses four attachments that parents add only when relevant: Attachment A covers limitations under the restrictions statutes, Attachment B covers a sex offense or sexual abuse of a child, Attachment C covers supervised-visitation rules, and Attachment R contains the residential parenting-time schedule. Every final parenting plan must include at least one attachment, and Attachment R is required in nearly all cases. For a typical case with no restrictions, the parenting plan runs about 8 pages plus the 6-page Attachment R, for roughly 14 pages total. The 2025 amendments (2025 c 166) also added definitions for previously undefined terms like "abusive use of conflict" and "willful abandonment." Willful abandonment now means a parent expressed, by statement or conduct, an intent to forego parental responsibilities for an extended period despite the ability to exercise them; it expressly excludes parents kept away by incarceration, deportation, inpatient treatment, a medical emergency, fleeing to a domestic-violence shelter, or the other parent withholding the child.
Restrictions and Limiting Factors
Washington courts cannot restrict a parent's residential time without express written findings of a limiting factor, under RCW 26.09.191. The statute mandates restrictions when a parent has engaged in willful abandonment for an extended period, physical abuse or a pattern of emotional abuse of a child, a history of domestic violence, an assault causing grievous bodily harm or fear of such harm, any sexual assault, or sexual abuse of a child.
These mandatory restrictions are the strongest in Washington family law because the legislature removed judicial discretion when serious harm is established. Beyond the mandatory factors, RCW 26.09.191 lists discretionary factors a court may consider, including a parent's neglect or substantial nonperformance of parenting functions, a long-term emotional or physical impairment that interferes with parenting, a long-term substance-abuse problem that interferes with parenting, the absence of an emotional tie between parent and child, the abusive use of conflict that creates the danger of serious damage to the child's psychological development, and a parent's withholding of the child from the other parent for a substantial time. When a limiting factor applies, the court may order supervised visitation, restricted decision-making, no mediation requirement, or in the most serious cases no contact at all. Cases involving sexual abuse of a child must now consult both RCW 26.09.191 and the newly separated RCW 26.09.192.
Filing, Fees, and Timeline
Filing a Washington parenting plan begins with a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage filed in the superior court of any county where either spouse resides, with a filing fee of $314 to $364 as of March 2026. King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties charge $314, while smaller counties such as Lincoln charge $364. Always verify the current fee with your local clerk.
Washington has no minimum residency duration under RCW 26.09.030; you only need to be a state resident on the day you file. After filing, you serve your spouse, who has 20 days to respond. The mandatory 90-day waiting period runs from the later of filing or service and cannot be waived, no matter how amicable the case. Fee waivers are available through Form FL All Family 001 for households at or below 125% of the federal poverty level (about $19,406 for a single person in 2026). Uncontested cases with an agreed parenting plan typically finalize in 90 to 120 days, contested cases average 6 to 12 months, and complex custody disputes can exceed 18 months. Below is a comparison of the two paths.
| Path | Timeline | Typical Cost | Parenting Plan Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uncontested (agreed plan) | 90-120 days | $314-$364 filing fee plus optional flat-fee help | Parents draft and sign one agreed plan |
| Contested (disputed plan) | 6-18+ months | $5,000-$30,000+ in attorney and evaluator fees | Court may appoint a guardian ad litem; judge decides residential schedule |
Modifying a Parenting Plan
Modifying a Washington parenting plan requires proof of a substantial change in circumstances of the child or the non-moving parent that was not anticipated when the plan was entered, under RCW 26.09.260. For a major modification (one that changes the primary residence or adds more than 24 full days per year to the other parent's time), you must first clear an "adequate cause" hearing, a high threshold many attorneys call the hardest task in family law.
Washington distinguishes minor from major modifications. A minor modification, such as adjusting the schedule because a parent moved or had an involuntary work-schedule change that made the plan impractical, has a lower bar, and a party may use each statutory basis once every 24 months under RCW 26.09.260. Relocation is treated separately: a parent intending to move must give 60 days' written notice with the new address and a proposed revised residential schedule, and the other parent has 30 days to object. During a relocation dispute, the adequate-cause requirement does not apply. A conviction for custodial interference automatically counts as a substantial change of circumstances, while a parent's military deployment, by itself, cannot justify a permanent modification. Courts assess attorney's fees against any parent who files a modification motion in bad faith.