Every county in Ohio has at least one standard parenting schedule to suggest how much time a child spends with each parent. Some counties have more than one.
How do these schedules compare to others in the nation? Do fathers get a fair amount of time with their children?
Ohio’s ranking
In 2018, Custody Xchange did a study showing a fathers’ share of parenting time in each state. Afterward, the states got ranked. Out of the 50 states, Ohio ranked 44th with 23.7%. Ohio’s percentage of parenting time equates to about 87 days per year for the father. The nationwide average for a father’s parenting time is about 35%.
States such as Florida and New Mexico, both ranked No. 1, have a 50% parenting time rule. This means dads in those states get half the year with their children.
National Parenting Organization’s report card
As with the study by Custody Xchange, the National Parenting Organization does not look upon Ohio’s parenting time rules as favorable. The NPO gave Ohio a C on its 2019 report card. The positives:
- Laws require a court to consider a shared parenting order submitted by a parent.
- Statutes mandate consideration of a “friendly parent” factor.
- Rulings include a policy statement for a sharing between parents of the rights and responsibilities of raising the children.
The negatives the NPO found were:
- There is no statutory preference in a temporary or final order.
- Statutes do not provide for shared parenting during temporary orders.
- The court uses permissive language in cases where it finds the submitted parenting plan is suitable for the children.
NPO did not give Franklin county a grade because it has four schedules with no default schedule. However, it graded each schedule. Two of these parenting plans received As.