Custody in Illinois.

Decisions against where the child lives

Illinois separates the two completely and can allocate them differently. Significant decision-making (sec. 602.5(b)) covers four named areas – education, health, religion, and extracurricular activities – and the court allocates each significant issue to one or both parents. Parenting time (sec. 600(e)) is the time a parent is responsible for caretaking and non-significant decisions. Sec. 602.5(d): 'A parent shall have sole responsibility for making routine decisions with respect to the child and for emergency decisions affecting the child's health and safety during that parent's parenting time.' Sec. 606.10 keeps a 'custodian' label alive only for other statutes: the parenting plan designates the parent with the majority of parenting time as custodian, and 'this designation shall not affect parents' rights and responsibilities under the parenting plan.'

What the judge must weigh

Decision-making — 750 ILCS 5/602.5(c)

(c) Determination of child's best interests. In determining the child's best interests for purposes of allocating significant decision-making responsibilities, the court shall consider all relevant factors, including, without limitation, the following:

1. (1) the wishes of the child, taking into account the child's maturity and ability to express reasoned and independent preferences as to decision-making;
2. (2) the child's adjustment to his or her home, school, and community;
3. (3) the mental and physical health of all individuals involved;
4. (4) the ability of the parents to cooperate to make decisions, or the level of conflict between the parties that may affect their ability to share decision-making;
5. (5) the level of each parent's participation in past significant decision-making with respect to the child;
6. (6) any prior agreement or course of conduct between the parents relating to decision-making with respect to the child;
7. (7) the wishes of the parents;
8. (8) the child's needs;
9. (9) the distance between the parents' residences, the cost and difficulty of transporting the child, each parent's and the child's daily schedules, and the ability of the parents to cooperate in the arrangement;
10. (10) whether a restriction on decision-making is appropriate under Section 603.10;
11. (11) the willingness and ability of each parent to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing relationship between the other parent and the child;
12. (12) the physical violence or threat of physical violence by the child's parent directed against the child;
13. (13) the occurrence of abuse against the child or other member of the child's household;
14. (14) whether one of the parents is a sex offender, and if so, the exact nature of the offense and what, if any, treatment in which the parent has successfully participated; and
15. (15) any other factor that the court expressly finds to be relevant.

(d) A parent shall have sole responsibility for making routine decisions with respect to the child and for emergency decisions affecting the child's health and safety during that parent's parenting time. (e) In allocating significant decision-making responsibilities, the court shall not consider conduct of a parent that does not affect that parent's relationship to the child.

Parenting time — 750 ILCS 5/602.7(b)

(b) Allocation of parenting time. Unless the parents present a mutually agreed written parenting plan and that plan is approved by the court, the court shall allocate parenting time. It is presumed both parents are fit and the court shall not place any restrictions on parenting time as defined in Section 600 and described in Section 603.10, unless it finds by a preponderance of the evidence that a parent's exercise of parenting time would seriously endanger the child's physical, mental, moral, or emotional health. In determining the child's best interests for purposes of allocating parenting time, the court shall consider all relevant factors, including, without limitation, the following:

1. (1) the wishes of each parent seeking parenting time;
2. (2) the wishes of the child, taking into account the child's maturity and ability to express reasoned and independent preferences as to parenting time;
3. (3) the amount of time each parent spent performing caretaking functions with respect to the child in the 24 months preceding the filing of any petition for allocation of parental responsibilities or, if the child is under 2 years of age, since the child's birth;
4. (4) any prior agreement or course of conduct between the parents relating to caretaking functions with respect to the child;
5. (5) the interaction and interrelationship of the child with his or her parents and siblings and with any other person who may significantly affect the child's best interests;
6. (6) the child's adjustment to his or her home, school, and community;
7. (7) the mental and physical health of all individuals involved;
8. (8) the child's needs;
9. (9) the distance between the parents' residences, the cost and difficulty of transporting the child, each parent's and the child's daily schedules, and the ability of the parents to cooperate in the arrangement;
10. (10) whether a restriction on parenting time is appropriate;
11. (11) the physical violence or threat of physical violence by the child's parent directed against the child or other member of the child's household;
12. (12) the willingness and ability of each parent to place the needs of the child ahead of his or her own needs;
13. (13) the willingness and ability of each parent to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing relationship between the other parent and the child;
14. (14) the occurrence of abuse against the child or other member of the child's household;
15. (15) whether one of the parents is a convicted sex offender or lives with a convicted sex offender and, if so, the exact nature of the offense and what if any treatment the offender has successfully participated in; the parties are entitled to a hearing on the issues raised in this paragraph (15);
16. (16) the terms of a parent's military family-care plan that a parent must complete before deployment if a parent is a member of the United States Armed Forces who is being deployed; and
17. (17) any other factor that the court expressly finds to be relevant.

(c) In allocating parenting time, the court shall not consider conduct of a parent that does not affect that parent's relationship to the child.

What the child wants

No age. Both factor lists say the same thing – 'the wishes of the child, taking into account the child's maturity and ability to express reasoned and independent preferences' (secs. 602.5(c)(1) and 602.7(b)(2)). Sec. 604.10(a) governs how the child is heard: the judge may interview the child in chambers, counsel is present unless the parties agree otherwise, the entire interview is recorded by a court reporter, and the transcript is filed under seal and released only by court order.

Where there has been violence or abuse

Illinois has no standalone custody presumption for domestic violence. Instead it appears as mandatory factors – physical violence or threats against the child (sec. 602.5(c)(12)), abuse against the child or another household member (sec. 602.5(c)(13)), violence or threats against the child or another household member (sec. 602.7(b)(11)) and abuse against the child or another household member (sec. 602.7(b)(14)) – and it drives sec. 603.10. Under sec. 603.10(a), if after a hearing the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that a parent 'engaged in any conduct that seriously endangered the child's mental, moral, or physical health or that significantly impaired the child's emotional development,' the court shall enter protective orders, which may include reducing or eliminating decision-making or parenting time, supervision, exchanges through an intermediary or in a protected setting, restraints on contact, sobriety requirements, restrictions on who may be present, a bond, or completion of an abuse-perpetrator treatment program. Sec. 602.10(f) lets a parent keep an address and phone number out of the plan where there is a history of domestic violence.

The parenting plan

Yes, and there is a deadline. 750 ILCS 5/602.10(a): 'All parents, within 120 days after service or filing of any petition for allocation of parental responsibilities, must file with the court, either jointly or separately, a proposed parenting plan.' If no plan is filed the court must hold an evidentiary hearing (sec. 602.10(b)). An agreed plan must be in writing and signed by both parents and is binding on the court unless the court finds it is not in the child's best interests (sec. 602.10(d)). Sec. 602.10(f) sets 15 minimum contents, including the allocation of significant decision-making; a parenting time schedule or a formula for one; a mediation provision for future changes; each parent's access to medical, child care and school records; the designation of the majority-parenting-time parent for sec. 606.10; the child's residential address for school enrollment; each parent's address, phone and employer; a requirement of at least 60 days' prior written notice of any change of residence; emergency and travel notification; transportation; electronic communication; provisions for a future relocation; provisions for future modifications; right of first refusal terms if wanted; and anything else in the child's best interests. Address and phone information is not required where there is a history of domestic violence or abuse. Illinois has Supreme Court approved standardized forms; ask your circuit clerk for the current parenting plan form.

Mediation

Effectively yes. 750 ILCS 5/602.10(c): 'The court shall order mediation to assist the parents in formulating or modifying a parenting plan or in implementing a parenting plan unless the court determines that impediments to mediation exist.' Costs are allocated between the parties under the applicable statute or Supreme Court Rule. Every parenting plan must also contain a mediation provision for future changes to parenting time or the allocation, unless one parent has all significant decision-making (sec. 602.10(f)(3)). Domestic violence is the usual 'impediment,' and each circuit runs its own mediation program with its own screening – raise safety concerns with the court before you are sent to mediation.

If the court appoints someone to look into it

750 ILCS 5/604.10 gives three routes and each has its own payment rule. Sec. 604.10(b), the court's own professional: the report must reach counsel and the court at least 60 days before the anticipated hearing, the professional testifies as the court's witness subject to cross-examination, and 'the court shall order all costs and fees of the professional to be paid by one or more of the parties, subject to reallocation in accordance with subsection (a) of Section 508.' Sec. 604.10(c), a party's retained evaluator: on a timely motion the court shall order an evaluation unless it is untimely or not in the child's best interests, and 'the party requesting the evaluation shall pay the evaluator's fees and costs unless otherwise ordered by the court'; the report must go to counsel at least 60 days before the hearing or it cannot be admitted. Sec. 604.10(d), an investigation: no fees for a governmental agency; any other investigator's fees are allocated under sec. 508. Separately, 750 ILCS 5/506 lets the court appoint an attorney for the child, a guardian ad litem or a child representative; sec. 506(b) requires an order for costs and fees at the time of appointment, detailed invoices every 90 days, and payment 'by either or both parents, by any other party or source, or from the marital estate or the child's separate estate.'

Changing the order

750 ILCS 5/610.5, and it treats decision-making and parenting time very differently. Decision-making: no motion to modify may be made earlier than two years after the order, unless the parties stipulate, unless sec. 603.10 applies, or unless the court permits it on affidavits showing reason to believe the child's present environment 'may endanger seriously his or her mental, moral, or physical health or significantly impair the child's emotional development.' Parenting time: 'may be modified at any time, without a showing of serious endangerment, upon a showing of changed circumstances that necessitates modification to serve the best interests of the child.' Sec. 610.5(c) is the general standard – a substantial change in the circumstances of the child or either parent, based on facts arising since the order or not anticipated in it, and modification necessary to serve the child's best interests, proved by a preponderance. Sec. 610.5(e) allows modification with no changed circumstances at all in four situations: the change reflects the arrangement the child has actually been living under without objection for the six months before filing; it is a minor modification; it corrects an agreed plan the court would not have approved had it known the circumstances; or the parties agree. Sec. 610.5(f) allows fees against a party filing a vexatious or harassing modification and lets the court bar a repeat frivolous filer for a period of time.

If you were never married

Illinois puts unmarried parents on the same Part VI track once parentage exists. Sec. 602.8(a) frames it: 'A parent who has established parentage under the laws of this State and who is not granted significant decision-making responsibilities for a child is entitled to reasonable parenting time.' Parentage is established under the Illinois Parentage Act of 2015 (750 ILCS 46) – by a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity, an administrative determination, or a court adjudication. Once parentage is established, the same best-interest factors, the same parenting plan deadline, the same relocation rules and the same modification standards apply. The practical difference is sequence: an unmarried father generally needs parentage established before he can be allocated parental responsibilities.