Awarding Child Custody in PA: Standards Used by the Court
Posted in: Custody & Visitation, General
Pennsylvania’s Child Custody law applies to married parents, married but separated parents, and parents who have never been married. The law may also apply to biological and non-biological parents.
In 2011 Pennsylvania amended the legal standard for awarding child custody by establishing 15-plus standards on which the deciding court must base a custody decision. By showing the court a pattern of parenting behavior that meets these standards in the custody law, divorced and separated parents can find a path to custody and a meaningful role in the raising of their children.
Factors Used by Pennsylvania Courts When Awarding Child Custody:
- Which party is more likely to encourage and permit frequent and continuing contact between the child and another party
- Present and past abuse committed by a party or a member of the party’s household, whether there is a continued risk of harm to the child or an abused party, and which party can provide adequate physical safeguards and supervision of the child
- The parental duties performed by each party on behalf of the child
- The need for stability and continuity in the child’s education, family life and community life
- The availability of the extended family
- The child’s sibling relationships
- The well-reasoned preference of the child, based on the child’s maturity and judgment
- The attempts of a parent to turn the child against the other parent, except in cases of domestic violence, where reasonable safety measures are necessary to protect the child from harm
- Which party is more likely to maintain a loving, stable, consistent and nurturing relationship with the child, adequate for the child’s emotional needs
- Which party is more likely to attend to the daily physical, emotional, developmental, educational, and special needs of the child
- The proximity of the residences of the parties
- Each party’s availability to care for the child or ability to make appropriate child-care arrangements
- The level of conflict between the parties and the willingness and ability of the parties to cooperate with one another. A party’s effort to protect a child from abuse or another party is not evidence of unwillingness or inability to cooperate with that other party
- The history of drug or alcohol abuse by a party or a member of a party’s household
- The mental or physical condition of a party or a member
- Any other relevant factor