When parents separate or divorce, one of the most important questions is how decisions about their children will be made and where the children will spend their time. Terms such as legal custody, physical custody, residency, and parenting time can be confusing, particularly because Kansas and Missouri use somewhat different terminology.
If you are dealing with a child custody matter in the Kansas City area, understanding the difference between legal and physical custody is an important first step.
What Is Legal Custody?
Legal custody generally refers to the authority to make important decisions about a child’s life. These decisions may include matters involving education, healthcare, and the child’s general welfare.
In Kansas, legal custody is defined as the allocation of parental responsibilities, including decision-making rights and responsibilities concerning a child’s health, education, and welfare. Kansas courts may award joint or sole legal custody. With joint legal custody, both parents have equal rights to make decisions in the child’s best interests.
Missouri similarly defines joint legal custody as sharing decision-making rights, responsibilities, and authority concerning the child’s health, education, and welfare. Missouri courts can award joint legal custody, sole legal custody, or combine legal custody with different physical custody arrangements.
What Is Physical Custody?
Physical custody generally concerns where a child lives and the time the child spends with each parent.
Missouri law specifically recognizes joint physical custody and sole physical custody. Joint physical custody means that each parent has significant periods of time when the child resides with him or her. The time does not necessarily have to be exactly equal.
Kansas uses somewhat different terminology. Rather than focusing exclusively on “physical custody,” Kansas custody orders address residency and parenting time. A Kansas parenting plan establishes legal custody, the child’s schedule with each parent, and other responsibilities concerning the child’s care.
Can Parents Have Joint Legal Custody but Different Physical Custody Arrangements?
Yes. Legal custody and physical custody are separate concepts.
For example, parents may share joint legal custody while the child resides with one parent the majority of the time and has scheduled parenting time with the other. Missouri law expressly recognizes combinations such as joint legal custody with sole physical custody, as well as joint legal and joint physical custody. In Kansas, a parenting plan can similarly establish joint legal custody while providing a specific residential schedule and parenting-time arrangement.
How Do Kansas and Missouri Courts Decide Custody?
Both Kansas and Missouri focus on the best interests of the child, although the statutes identify different factors courts must consider.
Kansas courts consider factors including each parent’s relationship with the child, the child’s needs, the child’s adjustment to home and school, each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent, the parents’ ability to communicate and cooperate, and other relevant circumstances.
Missouri courts consider factors including the child’s relationship with each parent, the child’s adjustment to home, school, and community, and each parent’s ability and willingness to maintain a meaningful relationship between the child and the other parent.
Legal and physical custody issues are best addressed on a case-by-case basis, as the circumstances surrounding each child and each family are different.
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