Maine Child Custody: A Parent's Guide

In short: Maine uses "parental rights and responsibilities" rather than "custody," decided under a 16-factor best-interest standard. A parent with primary residential care who wants to relocate must give 30 days' written notice, and a move of more than 60 miles is presumed to disrupt the existing parenting schedule, triggering a best-interest review if the other parent objects.

This is an educational overview written for parents, not lawyers. It isn't legal advice. For anything beyond general understanding, talk to a licensed Maine family law attorney.

What Maine generally provides

Maine courts award parental rights and responsibilities under 19-A M.R.S. § 1653 based on the child's best interest, evaluated through 16 statutory factors. The child's safety and well-being are treated as the primary considerations throughout.

Important terminology

• Parental rights and responsibilities: Maine's term for what other states call custody, covering both decision-making authority and the residential schedule.
• Primary residential care: the arrangement where the child lives mostly with one parent, relevant to Maine's relocation notice requirement.
• 60-mile disruption presumption: the distance threshold under § 1657 that automatically presumes a move will disrupt the existing contact schedule.

How custody works in Maine

A 16-factor best-interest framework

No single factor is determinative in Maine, and courts weigh factors based on each family's specific circumstances. These include each parent's relationship with the child, the stability of the child's current living situation, each parent's ability to support the child's relationship with the other parent, each parent's methods for parental cooperation and dispute resolution and their willingness to use them, and any history of domestic abuse or child abuse. For a child under one year old, courts also consider breastfeeding, and a parent's conviction for a sex offense is a mandatory factor in the analysis.

What automatically counts as a substantial change

Certain events automatically qualify as a substantial change in circumstances justifying a fresh look at the parenting arrangement: relocating a Maine-resident child to another state when the non-relocating parent remains in Maine and shared or allocated parental rights exist, a relocation that will substantially disrupt the existing parent-child contact schedule, and a court finding of domestic or family violence since the last determination.

Parenting schedules

Once parental rights and responsibilities are allocated, families commonly build the actual schedule around patterns like 2-2-3 or week on, week off. See what is a parenting plan for what a strong plan generally covers, how to choose a custody schedule for a general framework, and the custody schedule generator to build the actual calendar.

Moving with your child (relocation)

Under 19-A M.R.S. § 1657, a parent with primary residential care who intends to relocate must give the other parent at least 30 days' written notice before the planned move. Maine presumes that any move more than 60 miles from either the relocating parent's home or the non-relocating parent's home will disrupt the existing parent-child contact schedule. If the non-moving parent objects, the relocating parent must go to court, and the judge decides whether the move serves the child's best interests, weighing the same factors used in any parental-rights determination. See moving to another state with shared custody for how relocation standards tend to work more broadly across states.

Common questions

How is child support calculated? Maine uses the income shares model: both parents' gross annual incomes are combined, the basic support entitlement is read from the Child Support Table (covering combined incomes up to $400,000, with different amounts for children under and over age 12), and each parent pays their proportional share. Courts can deviate where strict application would be unjust or inequitable.

Can a parental-rights order be changed later? Yes, generally on a showing of a substantial change in circumstances, several of which are automatically triggered by certain relocations, and that a modification serves the child's best interest.

What if my co-parent won't follow the order? You can file a motion for contempt or to enforce the order with the court. Courts can order makeup contact time and, in serious or repeated cases, hold a parent in contempt.

Practical considerations

Because Maine's 60-mile rule creates an automatic disruption presumption regardless of whether the move crosses state lines, even an in-state relocation can trigger a court review, worth planning for and discussing directly with a Maine family law attorney well before a move. Whatever the order specifies, the operational part that follows it, keeping both households aligned on the same schedule, logging change requests instead of relying on memory, and keeping a record if an enforcement issue arises, is a separate, ongoing piece worth planning for.

Official Maine resources

• 19-A M.R.S. § 1653 (Award of Parental Rights and Responsibilities)
• 19-A M.R.S. § 1657 (Relocation of a Child)
• Maine Judicial Branch: Calculating Child Support

Related OnePage resources

• Custody schedule generator
• What is a parenting plan
• How to choose a custody schedule
• Moving to another state with shared custody

Related Maine pages

• Maine hub