Rule 9-204.1.Parenting plans

The vocabulary comes first, because it has changed. Decision-making authority — what used to be called legal custody — is how major long-term decisions about a child's medical care, mental health, education, religious training and extracurricular activities get made. Parenting time, formerly physical custody, is where the child lives and how much time they spend with each party. A parenting plan is a written agreement about how the parties will work together to take care of the child.

At or before the parties' first appearance on a decision-making or parenting time matter, the court must give each of them the Maryland Parenting Plan Instructions and the Parenting Plan Tool, on paper or by directing them to an electronic version, and advise them that they may work on it separately or together.

The rule then sets out sixteen factors the parties may consider in deciding what arrangement is in the child's best interest. They run from stability and the child's foreseeable health and welfare, through frequent and continuing contact, the sharing of rights and responsibilities, the child's relationships with siblings and others, physical and emotional security and protection from conflict and violence, developmental and day-to-day needs, and how to put the child's needs above the parties' own — to the child's age, any military deployment and its effect, prior orders and agreements, each party's role and how it has changed, the location of each home, the parties' relationship with each other including how they communicate and how they will resolve future disputes without going back to court, the child's preference if age-appropriate, and anything else the parties think matters.

If the parties cannot reach a comprehensive plan, they complete the Joint Statement under Rule 9-204.2 instead.