Is 50/50 the default? Usually not.
Five states presume equal time. Twenty-four presume nothing at all. Here is what your state actually starts from — taken from the statute, not from the internet.
Ask the internet whether your state is a “50/50 state” and you will get a confident answer. It is usually wrong, and it is wrong for one specific reason: a presumption that both parents keep a say in decisions gets reported as a presumption that the children spend half their nights at each house. Those are different rules, and several statutes say so in the same paragraph that creates the presumption.
Where your state actually stands
Equal time is the presumed starting point 5 states
These are the only states where “50/50 is the default” is a fair description of the law. Even here it is a rebuttable presumption — the other parent can argue it out of the way, and in most of these states only needs to tip the balance to do it.
Joint custody is presumed, but equal time is not 3 states
The presumption is real and it is strong. It is about the arrangement being joint, not about the calendar being halved. Idaho’s statute says so directly: joint physical custody “does not necessarily mean the child’s time with each parent should be exactly the same in length.”
Shared decision-making is presumed. Time is not. 9 states
This is the group most often misreported, and the misreporting is understandable — the statutes really do contain the word presumption. What they presume is that both parents keep a say in school, medical care and religion. Several go out of their way to add that this says nothing about the schedule.
Only if you both agree 7 states
In these states the presumption switches on only where both parents want it — or, in Oregon and Vermont, a judge is barred from imposing a shared arrangement over one parent’s objection at all. Which means that in exactly the contested cases people are asking about, it does not help.
Nothing is presumed, in either direction 26 states
Almost half the country. The judge starts from a blank page and applies the best-interest factors. Several of these states say so in terms — Virginia: “there shall be no presumption in favor of any form of custody.” Georgia says it twice over: “There shall be no prima-facie right to the custody of the child in the father or mother. There shall be no presumption in favor of any particular form of custody, legal or physical, nor in favor of either parent.” New Jersey belongs here for a reason worth knowing: 9:2-4 says the rights of both parents are equal and lists joint custody first among the orders a judge may enter, and people read that as a presumption. It is not one. The same subsection contemplates joint custody where the child “shall reside either solely with one parent” — and in January 2026 the Legislature removed the old declaration about frequent and continuing contact and told courts to decide case by case.
A rebuttable presumption is a starting point, not a result. It decides who has to persuade the judge, not who wins. In every one of these states the outcome still turns on the best-interest factors and on the evidence in front of the court — and in every one of them, parents who reach their own written agreement are far more likely to get the arrangement they wanted than parents who let a judge decide.
All fifty states are now confirmed against the statute
Two states sat in a “we could not confirm” group on this page for months, because neither publishes its own code in a form anything but a live browser can read. Both are now done. New Jersey’s statute was read directly from the Legislature’s own database — and turned out to have been rewritten in January 2026. Georgia’s was rebuilt from the enacted Acts of its General Assembly, section by section, with the limitations of that method written on the Georgia page rather than buried. Nothing was taken from a law firm’s summary, an aggregator, or an encyclopedia, on any of the fifty.
All fifty states
The middle column is what the state actually calls the subject. 15 of them have retired “custody” or “visitation” between parents, and the words on your paperwork should match.
| State | What it is called there | Is 50/50 the default | The money side |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Custody and visitation | Only if you both agree | Support → |
| Alaska | Custody and visitation | No presumption | Support → |
| Arizona | Legal decision-making | No presumption | Support → |
| Arkansas | Custody and visitation | Equal time presumed | Support → |
| California | Legal and physical custody | Only if you both agree | Support → |
| Colorado | Parental responsibilities | No presumption | Support → |
| Connecticut | Custody and visitation | Only if you both agree | Support → |
| Delaware | Custody and residence | No presumption | Support → |
| Florida | Time-sharing | Equal time presumed | Support → |
| Georgia | Custody and parenting plan | No presumption | Support → |
| Hawaii | Custody and parenting plan | No presumption | Support → |
| Idaho | Custody | Joint custody presumed | Support → |
| Illinois | Parental responsibilities | No presumption | Support → |
| Indiana | Custody and parenting time | No presumption | Support → |
| Iowa | Custody and physical care | Joint decisions only | Support → |
| Kansas | Legal custody and residency | Joint decisions only | Support → |
| Kentucky | Custody and parenting time | Equal time presumed | Support → |
| Louisiana | Custody and domiciliary parent | Joint custody presumed | Support → |
| Maine | Parental rights and responsibilities | Only if you both agree | Support → |
| Maryland | Legal and physical custody | No presumption | Support → |
| Massachusetts | Legal and physical custody | Joint decisions only | Support → |
| Michigan | Custody and parenting time | No presumption | Support → |
| Minnesota | Custody and parenting time | Joint decisions only | Support → |
| Mississippi | Custody and visitation | Only if you both agree | Support → |
| Missouri | Custody | Equal time presumed | Support → |
| Montana | Parenting plan | No presumption | Support → |
| Nebraska | Parenting plan | No presumption | Support → |
| Nevada | Custody and visitation | Joint decisions only | Support → |
| New Hampshire | Parental rights and responsibilities | Joint decisions only | Support → |
| New Jersey | Legal and residential custody | No presumption | Support → |
| New Mexico | Custody and timesharing | Joint custody presumed | Support → |
| New York | Custody and visitation | No presumption | Support → |
| North Carolina | Custody and visitation | No presumption | Support → |
| North Dakota | Parental rights and responsibilities | No presumption | Support → |
| Ohio | Parental rights and responsibilities | No presumption | Support → |
| Oklahoma | Custody and visitation | No presumption | Support → |
| Oregon | Custody and parenting time | Only if you both agree | Support → |
| Pennsylvania | Legal and physical custody | No presumption | Support → |
| Rhode Island | Custody and visitation | No presumption | Support → |
| South Carolina | Custody and parenting time | No presumption | Support → |
| South Dakota | Custody and visitation | No presumption | Support → |
| Tennessee | Permanent parenting plan | No presumption | Support → |
| Texas | Conservatorship | Joint decisions only | Support → |
| Utah | Custody and parent-time | Joint decisions only | Support → |
| Vermont | Parental rights and responsibilities | Only if you both agree | Support → |
| Virginia | Custody and visitation | No presumption | Support → |
| Washington | Parenting plan | No presumption | Support → |
| West Virginia | Custodial responsibility | Equal time presumed | Support → |
| Wisconsin | Custody and placement | Joint decisions only | Support → |
| Wyoming | Custody and visitation | No presumption | Support → |
No state matches that.
Before you move house, read the relocation rule
Nearly every state requires written notice before you move away with a child, and the deadlines are short — 30, 45 or 60 days is typical, and the distance that triggers it ranges from 50 miles to crossing a state line. Moving first and asking afterwards is the mistake that is hardest to undo. Each state page has that state’s numbers.
If you were never married, there may be a step first
In several states custody sits with the mother by operation of law until a court says otherwise, and an unmarried father has to establish parentage before he has anything to enforce — in Georgia that separate action is called legitimation. Signing the birth certificate is not always enough. Each state page says what applies.