November 3, 2004 |
2004-R-0840 | |
SHARED PARENTING | ||
| ||
By: Susan Price, Principal Legislative Analyst | ||
You asked about shared parenting and how often courts award fathers primary child custody.
“Shared parenting” is another name for joint physical custody. It usually involves a schedule where a child whose parents are living separately lives at least 30% of the time with one parent, and the remainder with the other. All states have statutes creating a rebuttable presumption that joint custody is in a child’s best interest when the parents agree to it.
Connecticut’s Judicial Department does not compile statistics on parental custody awards. The most recent national figures we could find date to 1990. Table 1 shows percentages of sole and joint custody awards in 16 states participating in a National Center for Health Statistics survey.
Table 1: Child Custody Awards, 19901
State |
Father |
Mother |
Joint |
Alabama |
10. 7% |
80. 2% |
8. 6% |
Alaska |
14. 2 |
63. 1 |
19. 5 |
Connecticut |
5. 3 |
58. 1 |
36. 4 |
Idaho |
10. 4 |
55. 3 |
33. 2 |
-Continued-
State |
Father |
Mother |
Joint |
Illinois |
9. 2 |
75. 4 |
15. 1 |
Kansas |
6. 8 |
47. 2 |
43. 6 |
Michigan |
11. 2 |
73. 9 |
14. 2 |
Missouri |
11. 0 |
73. 1 |
14. 8 |
Montana |
8. 4 |
46. 4 |
44. 0 |
Nebraska |
12. 2 |
81. 3 |
4. 1 |
New Hampshire |
11. 0 |
80. 4 |
7. 1 |
Oregon |
12. 6 |
71. 7 |
14. 0 |
Pennsylvania |
10. 0 |
81. 1 |
10. 1 |
Rhode Island |
5. 4 |
62. 2 |
31. 7 |
Tennessee |
11. 3 |
78. 9 |
8. 6 |
Utah |
9. 7 |
81. 1 |
9. 0 |
Vermont |
10. 6 |
71. 4 |
17. 1 |
Virginia |
11. 6 |
70. 9 |
13. 8 |
Wyoming |
9. 5 |
74. 4 |
15. 1 |
Source: Monthly Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 43, No. 9 (March 22, 1995), National Center for Health Statistics
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1 Figures may not add up to 100% because custody awarded to third parties is excluded.