One of the biggest conflicts in a divorce case is child custody and visitation. In California, the amount of time you spend with your child is known as “custodial timeshare” or “custodial percentage timeshare” and has a direct impact on the amount of child support you pay or receive.
Once you have established a particular custodial schedule it is important that you calculate the timeshare that you will be spending with your children as this percentage will go into the child support calculation and have a major impact on child support.
Your custodial timeshare has a direct impact on the amount of child support you pay or receive.
Custodial Arrangements for Holidays and Special Events
In addition to your actual regular periods of custody and visitation, custody during holidays and school breaks also needs to be worked out. Generally, the children will alternate every other holiday with each of their parents, alternating the years for Thanksgiving and Christmas and spring break. There will also be other days that need to be alternated such as birthdays, Mother’s and Father’s Day, and three-day weekends.
The children can benefit if their parents work out a mutual agreement for sharing both holidays and vacations. Always try to keep the child’s best interests in mind and incorporate flexibility into custody and visitation schedules.
The following are some commonly used timeshare arrangements, as well as the percentage of time that is associated with each of the schedules. At the bottom of this article, there is a chart with timeshares associated with different custodial arrangements.
Commonly Used Timeshare Arrangements
1. Alternating weekends and one evening visit a week
In this schedule, the child lives with the custodial parent during the week and visits the non-custodial parent on alternating weekends and for one evening visit during the week. For this arrangement, the custodial parent has 84% of the time with the child and the non-custodial parent has 16% of the time, not including holidays or special days. This schedule is a common one in situations where one parent has sole physical custody and the other parent gets visitation.
2. Alternating weekends and one overnight a week
This is similar to the schedule above, but the evening visit is an overnight visit. The non-custodial parent has visitation every other weekend and one overnight visit a week. This gives the non-custodial parent a little more time than the previous schedule. The custodial parent has 71% of the time and the non-custodial parent has 29%, not including holidays or special days.
3. Alternating extended weekends
In this arrangement, the child spends every other weekend with the non-custodial parent but the weekend goes until Monday evening. The time-share percentage for the custodial parent is 79% and the time-share for the non-custodial parent is 21%, not including holidays or special days.
4. Alternating weekends and one evening visit a week
In this schedule, the child lives with a custodial parent during the week and visits the non-custodial parent on alternating weekends and for one evening visit during the week. For this arrangement, the custodial parent has 84% of the time with the child and the non-custodial parent has 16% of the time, not including holidays or special days.
5. Alternating weekends and one overnight a week
This is similar to the schedule above, but the evening visit is an overnight visit. The non-custodial parent has visitation every other weekend and one overnight visit a week. This gives the non-custodial parent a little more time than the previous schedule. The custodial parent has 71% of the time and the non-custodial parent has 29%, not including holidays or special days.
6. Alternating extended weekends
In this arrangement, the child spends every other weekend with the non-custodial parent but the weekend goes until Monday evening. The time-share percentage for the custodial parent is 78.63% and the time-share for the non-custodial parent is 21.37%, not including holidays or special days.
All of these schedules could start on different days or be adapted to fit your needs. The evening or overnight visit could be on any day of the week. Or, you could add additional visits if you thought that would be best for your child. These basic templates can be helpful in getting some ideas for your child custody schedule, but you shouldn’t feel like you have to fit your plan into one of these.
“J Factor” Chart
The following is a chart that further breaks down common custody time periods into what percentage of time you will have with the children. Some attorneys and judges will refer to the percentage as the “J Factor” as the California Child Support Guideline uses a mathematical formula in which “J” refers to the timeshare of the non-custodial parent.
One weekend per month | 6.58% |
One extended weekend per month | 9.86% |
Two weekends per month | 13.15% |
One weekend per month and one evening per week | 13.70% |
One extended weekend plus one overnight per week* | 19% |
Alternate weekends | 14.25% |
Alternate weekends plus two weeks during summer | 18.36% |
Alternate weekends, 1/2 holidays plus two weeks during summer | 18.90% |
Alternate weekends, 1/2 holidays plus two weeks during summer (CP also has two weeks during summer) | 18.36% |
Alternate weekends, 1/2 holidays plus one month during summer* | 23% |
Two extended weekends per month | 19.73% |
Alternate weekends and one evening per week | 21.37% |
Alternate weekends and one overnight per week | 28.49 |
Alternate extended weekends. | 21.40% |
Alternate weekends, 1/2 holidays plus four summer weeks (alternate summer weekends with makeups) | 21.10% |
Alternate weekends, 1/2 holidays plus four summer weeks (no alternate weekends) | 20.55% |
Alternate weekends, 1/2 holidays plus 1/2 summer | 22.47% |
Alternate extended weekends plus one evening per week | 28.49% |
Alternate extended weekends plus one overnight per week | 35.62% |
Alternate weekends, 1/2 holidays, 1 evening/week, four summer weeks (alt. weekends continued during summer, makeup weekends for the 4 weeks) | 28.23% |
Alternate weekends, 1 evening/week when school in session and 1/2 school vacation | 28.49% |
One day per week | 14.29 |
Two days per week | 28.57% |
Three days per week | 42.85% |
Four days per week | 57.14 |
Five days per week | 71.43 |
Six days per week | 85.71 |
First, third and fifth weekends | 15.34% |
First, third and fifth extended weekends | 23.01% |
First, third and alternate fifth weekends | 14.25% |
First, third and alternate extended weekends | 21.37% |
One evening per week | 7% |
One overnight per week | 14.2 |
Two weeks during the summer | 3.85% |
All time during which child is not in school (i.e. summer, winter and spring breaks, Thanksgiving holidays, etc.) | 31% |
Alternate weekend, one overnight per week plus 1/2 of all time child not in school | 30% |
Alternate weekends, one overnight per week , 1/2 holidays plus one month during summer | 29% |
Alternate weekends, one overnight per week plus 1/2 of all time child not in school | 30% |
Alternate weekends, one evening per week plus entire summer | 30% |
Alternate weekends, one overnight per week plus entire summer | 39% |
Three days one week/four days the next week and continuing thereafter | 49.99% |
*A “Standard Weekend” is Friday evening from 5:00 PM to Sunday evening at 5:00 PM. An “Extended Weekend” is Friday afternoon after school until Monday morning when school starts. If your visitation schedule does not conform to one of the above examples, you can always add up the number of hours of visitation per year and divide that number by 8760 (the total number of hours in a year). That will give you the visitation percentage based on your yearly visitation schedule. |