USA – FLORIDA Law and Practice Contributed by: Elisha D. Roy and Carolyn Ware, Sasser, Cestero & Roy
ordered by the court other than one agreed upon by the parties. The decision-making aspect is referred to as shared parental responsibility, and there is a presumption in Florida that it will be awarded in all cases. This means the major decisions for a child’s life must be made together by the parties, and not unilaterally. This would include primarily medical and educational deci ‑ sions as well as other major decisions that may affect a specific family. In some circumstances, the court can award “ultimate decision making” to one parent, but that must be limited to narrow and specific issues. Occasionally, the court may award sole decision- making, but that requires a finding by the court that shared parental responsibility would be detrimental to the child and that is a high burden to meet. Child-related issues are always subject to modifica ‑ tion, but for a timesharing schedule to be modified it is necessary for there to be a substantial change in circumstance and a finding that a modification is in the child’s best interests. Child Support Pursuant to § 61.29, Fla. Stat. each parent has a fun ‑ damental obligation to support his or her minor or legally dependent children. Child support is the obli ‑ gated payment of monetary support for the mainte ‑ nance of a child. See § 61.046, Fla. Stat. Child support is calculated by a statutory guideline based upon the parents’ combined net income esti ‑ mated to have been allocated to the child as if the parents and child(ren) were living together in one household, § 61.29, Fla. Stat. After determining the total support obligation, this is divided between the parents based upon each parent’s percentage of the overnights with the child(ren). The difference between the amounts is used to determine which parent is the payor and the amount of the payment necessary to care for the child(ren). These amounts are adjusted for each parent’s contributions to the child(ren)’s health insurance and daycare expenses, producing the final support amount, § 61.30, Fla. Stat.
Parents may enter an agreement concerning their child support obligations so long as the agreement serves the best interest of the child, however, they may not waive or contract away their child’s right to support. Lester v Lester , 736 So. 2d 1257 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999) (citations omitted). Contracts between the parents regarding the support of their minor child are subject to the plenary power of the state to control and regulate. Zolonz v Zolonz , 659 So. 2d 451 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995). The court may make orders in relation to child sup ‑ port. All child support orders and income deduction orders must provide for child support to terminate on a child’s 18th birthday unless the court finds or previ ‑ ously found that a child is dependent due to a mental or physical incapacity which began prior to the child turning 18 or if a dependent child is between the ages of 18 and 19, and is still in high school performing in good faith with a reasonable expectation of graduat ‑ ing before age 19. § 61.13, Fla. Stat, § 743.07 (2), Fla. Stat. Florida law does not provide an avenue for a child to seek support on their own. 3.3 Other Matters Courts have broad discretion in entering orders on children’s issues. See Miller v Miller , 842 So. 2d (Fla. 1st DCA 2003). When parents have opposing views on specific issues the court may modify parental respon ‑ sibility to allow one parent ultimate decision-making authority on the specific issue. For example, in Han- cock v Hancock , 915 So. 2d 1277 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005), when parents could not agree on a school for their child, the lower court was directed to award ultimate decision-making and designate one parent to make educational decisions for the child. The courts cannot order or provide decision-making authority to a third party. As such, if there is an impasse on parenting decisions, and this is brought before the court, the court will not likely make the actual decision, but will give one parent ultimate decision- making authority over that specific issue or topic. For example, if the parties do not agree on which school a child shall attend, after a hearing, the court would
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