Difference between revisions of "Custody and Access"

The federal ''Divorce Act'' talks about the care of children in terms of custody and access. Custody is the right to have the child with you and the right to make parenting decisions about the child, such as deciding where a child goes to school, how a sick child is treated, whether a child is raised in a religion and what sports the child plays after school. Access is the schedule of the child's time between spouses.

Custody can be held by more both spouses; this is called ''joint custody''. Having joint custody doesn't mean the child's time is equally split between the spouses' homes, but it does mean that they are both assumed to be good parents and that both will participate in making parenting decisions.

Access generally refers to the schedule of the spouse with the least amount of time with the child. There are no fixed rules about what access should look like. The facts that the court usually thinks about include:

#the quality of the child's relationship with both spouses;

#the history of the child's care before the spouses separated;

#the child's age and stage of development;

#any arrangements that have already been made for siblings; and

#any limitations on a spouses' parenting capacity.

Other people, usually relatives of the child like a grandparent, can have custody or access to a child. To apply for an order for custody or access, people who aren't spouses must first get the court's permission, and then make their application. Applictions like these aren't very common.