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What Must Be Included In My Parenting Plan?
The Nebraska Parenting Act requires that a parenting plan is created for legal issues involving the custody of a child. While parents may choose to include a number of different agreements in their plan, there are some provisions that are required to be included.

Below are 10 items which must be included in a parenting plan:

  1. Legal and Physical Custody. Your plan must state who has legal custody (the authority to make fundamental decisions on behalf of the child) and who has physical custody. Examples of some arrangements include the parents have joint legal custody while dad has physical custody, and to mom has parenting time. Or, mom has legal custody and the parents share joint physical custody. Regardless of the legal and physical custody arrangement, it must be clear
  2. Routine Parenting Time. Your plan must state with specificity when and how your child will be transferred between households. This includes specific times, transportation, and how the parents will communicate each other to facilitate the logistics. You may also include a provision providing for flexibility in the schedule if both parents are in agreement.
  3. Holiday Parenting Time. Your plan must list annual holidays and set forth the schedule for whom your child will spend that holiday with each year. This provision should also include whether holiday parenting time takes priority over routine parenting time and when the holiday parenting time starts and stops.
  4. Vacation Parenting Time. Vacation parenting time for both parents must be detailed in your plan. A typical plan usually provides for each parent to have two weeks (14 days) of vacation parenting annually. However, you and your co-parent are free to agree on fewer or more vacation days.
  5. Medical and School Records. Your plan should include a provision stating that each parent’s name will appear on all medical and school records for your child, and that each parent shall have access to all records without assistance from the other parent.
  6. School Attendance. There must be a provision in your plan stating that both parents will ensure regular and continuous school attendance and progress when the children are of school-age.
  7. Day-to-Day Decisions. You should include details on how day-to-day decisions regarding your child are made so that those decisions are consistent with the decisions made by whoever has legal custody.
  8. Safety Provisions. Specific provisions must be included to maximize the safety of all parties and the child if child abuse or neglect, intimate partner abuse, parental conflict, or criminal activity affecting the child is involved.
  9. Remediation. Your plan should have a requirement that you and your co-parent agree to remediate any (or all) of your plan in the event it becomes unworkable or if either parent wishes to make modifications.
  10. Relocation of a Parent. Your plan should provide that each parent agrees to provide the other with change of address information, unless a parent is relocating because of safety concerns. Also, a parent may not move a child from Nebraska without the court’s permission.

All provisions in your plan, whether required or agreed upon by you and your co-parent, must be in your child’s best interests. Contact your Koenig│Dunne attorneys to help tailor your plan to your unique circumstances that will best support you and your family.

Lindsay Belmont
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” 

~ Walt Whitman
People and Pets
Our amazing paralegal Lori recently welcomed another grandbaby! Ellie Mae Froistad was excitedly welcomed into the Froistad family on July 8, 2020 at exactly 5:00 p.m. She is the daughter of Joe and Jessica Froistad and little sister to Rowan, age 3, and heavenly sister, Lily.
Back to School: Corona-Style
I just turned it off one day. It was too much. I could no longer consume, react, and mourn the rancorous dissension filling up my social media feeds and nightly newscasts. To mask or not to mask, to reopen restaurants and bars or not, to social distance or stay quarantined – it was all taking its toll. And then I read an article that by turning it all off I was exercising again my white privilege – leading to more helplessness.

Now it is back-to-school time. I read posts like “Kids. Need. School,” and I want to engage. Who is saying kids don’t need school??? I crave going point and counterpoint to flush out my frustrations and ignore the hard, real life decisions I am faced with.

How will I keep my high schoolers healthy when even half of the alphabet in-school still means more kids than my entire high school held at full capacity? How will I continue to combat the “but so and so’s parents are letting them?” How will I stay corona free so I can continue managing my small business with a new potential risk every time my kids come home? 
Coach's Corner
with Susan Ann Koenig
Making History
These are historic times. We all know it. Previously unseen events unfold . Many we hope to never see  again.

Postings of rock concert crowds and soccer fans in the stadium are replaced by those of our prettiest petunias and our most impressive pizza.  For some, perhaps the lonely face of a white haired loved one through a window. 

So awake are we to the significance of this season of our lives that institutions across the country are keeping a close record.  I am one of many who chronicle my COVID-19 experience as a part of a project to contribute to our local university’s archives. 
Who is Koenig|Dunne?
For over 35 years, the Koenig|Dunne team has been helping people pick up the pieces of their life to make a new start. Bringing a family business back from the brink of financial ruin. Sheltering a child from the conflict of a custody battle. We do this work because its work we know matters.

Whether an amicable collaboration or lengthy litigation lies ahead, we’re the team who will empower you on your path to a better future, from start to finish. That’s a promise. We promise you – we will see you, hear you, and stand by you. Learn More
Guidance when you want it. Strength because you need it.
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