Massachusetts Parenting Plans: What Parents Need to Know

In short: Massachusetts doesn't use one standardized statewide parenting-plan form the way some states do. Instead, M.G.L. c. 208, § 31 requires parents who contest custody and seek shared legal or physical custody to submit a written shared custody implementation plan covering education, health care, dispute resolution, and the time-sharing schedule. Parents who agree on their own plan, often with help from Mass.gov's shared-parenting guide or mediation, can submit it jointly for the court's approval.

This is an educational overview written for parents, not lawyers. It isn't legal advice. For anything specific to your case, talk to a licensed Massachusetts family law attorney or use the Probate and Family Court's self-help resources.

What a Massachusetts parenting plan needs to cover

A complete plan generally addresses:

• The regular schedule: which days and nights the child spends with each parent, the underlying question a custody schedule pattern like 2-2-3 or week on/week off answers.
• Holidays and special occasions: birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and major holidays, since the regular schedule doesn't automatically say who has a given holiday. See how to build a holiday custody schedule for how this is typically structured.
• School breaks and vacation time: summer and other extended breaks, often handled separately from the regular weekly rotation.
• Education and health care decision-making: how these decisions get made, jointly or by one parent, and the process for resolving disagreements, both explicitly required elements under § 31.
• Transportation and exchange logistics: who transports the child, where exchanges happen, and what time.
• Enough detail to support the numbers: § 31 specifically calls for the plan to be detailed enough to allow, if necessary, equitable distribution of tax exemptions and calculation of child support, so vague time-sharing language can create downstream problems.

Massachusetts's mechanism: the shared custody implementation plan

Rather than a single fill-in-the-blank statewide form, Massachusetts handles parenting plans through statute. Under M.G.L. c. 208, § 31, whenever custody is contested and either parent requests shared legal custody, shared physical custody, or both, that parent must file a shared custody implementation plan, a written proposal covering the child's education and health care, the dispute-resolution procedure the parents will use, and the specific periods of time the child will spend with each parent. If both parents agree on a plan, they can submit it jointly. If they don't, each files a separate proposal, and at trial the judge considers the plans submitted and may accept, reject, or modify one in issuing the final shared custody order. Because the statute defines required content rather than a rigid form, the exact document format can vary somewhat by Probate and Family Court division, so it's worth checking with the specific division your case is filed in.

For parents building a plan by agreement, whether custody is contested or not, Mass.gov and the Massachusetts Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) publish Planning for Shared Parenting: A Guide for Parents Living Apart, which walks through age-appropriate schedules and the practical questions a plan should answer. It's a planning resource, not a court form, but it's the closest thing Massachusetts has to an official statewide template for the substance of a plan.

Separately, most parents in divorce, paternity, and custody/support/parenting time cases filed on or after February 12, 2024 must also complete "Two Families Now," a mandatory four-hour online co-parenting course, under Standing Order 3-23. That requirement is about co-parenting education, not the plan document itself, but it typically runs in parallel with working out the plan.

How a parenting plan relates to the custody order

The custody order is the court's ruling on legal and physical custody, informed in shared-custody cases by Massachusetts's temporary shared legal custody presumption and, ultimately, the child's best interest. The parenting plan, whether it's a formal shared custody implementation plan or an informal agreed schedule, is the operational layer underneath that ruling: the actual schedule, decision-making process, and logistics that make the order workable day to day. A custody order can technically exist without every operational detail spelled out, but a detailed plan reduces how much gets left to informal agreement or renegotiated later.

Reaching an agreed plan

Massachusetts courts generally prefer parents to work out their own plan rather than have one imposed by a judge. Mediation is a common path to an agreed plan, and a shared plan both parents sign onto is typically accepted by the court unless a judge finds it's not in the child's best interest. If parents can't agree, the court decides based on the shared custody implementation plans submitted (or, for cases not seeking shared custody, on the evidence at trial), applying the same best-interest standard.

Building the actual schedule

Once the categories above are settled, an OnePage parenting plan generator or custody schedule generator can help draft the specific written schedule to bring into mediation or attach to a shared custody implementation plan, and a general parenting plan guide covers what goes into a strong plan regardless of jurisdiction.

Official Massachusetts resources

• M.G.L. c. 208, § 31 (Custody of Children; Shared Custody Plans)
• Planning for Shared Parenting: A Guide for Parents Living Apart
• Standing Order 3-23: Co-Parenting Education Course for Married and Unmarried Parents
• 2025 Child Support Guidelines Worksheet (CJD 304)

Related OnePage resources

• Parenting plan generator
• What is a parenting plan
• How to build a holiday custody schedule

Related Massachusetts pages

• Massachusetts child custody
• Massachusetts hub