Beyond the schedule and the major decisions sit the day-to-day institutions: pediatricians, schools, daycare providers, after-school programs. Each one has rules about who's listed as an authorized contact, who picks up the records, and who shows up to the appointment. The parenting plan is where you write those rules down once.
This section breaks into three parts: healthcare (insurance, providers, records, emergency authority), education (school of attendance, school records, attendance at events, IEP/504 participation), and childcare (provider selection, ROFR application, cost-sharing). Each part specifies who can authorize what, who has access to what records, and how disagreements get resolved.
Healthcare: the plan names the insurance carrier and which parent's policy is primary, lists the kids' primary doctor and major specialists, and gives both parents access to all records (HIPAA authorization). Either parent can authorize routine and emergency care during their time. Education: the plan specifies the school of attendance, names both parents as authorized contacts, gives both parents access to grades and school records, and addresses event attendance (both parents at parent-teacher conferences, both at the school play, etc.). Childcare: provider selection is usually a joint decision (especially for daycare, which is a significant cost and a regular fixture in the kids' lives); after-school programs are usually decided by the parent who has primary parenting time during those hours.
When you draft this section of your parenting plan, make sure it covers each of these points. Skipping any of them is the most common reason this clause becomes a source of conflict later.
Start with the custody schedule — the foundation every other section builds on. Kidtime’s free wizard covers it in minutes.
Whichever parent has better coverage or lower cost — that becomes the primary insurance. The other parent's policy can serve as secondary if available. Most parenting plans name the carrier explicitly and address what happens if that parent loses coverage (the other parent then has X days to put the kids on their plan). Health insurance is one of the few sections where states sometimes intervene — child support orders often specify which parent provides insurance.
Yes, and your parenting plan should explicitly support this. Both parents should be listed as authorized contacts at the school, both should receive grades and report cards, and both should be welcome at parent-teacher conferences (usually together unless the relationship is genuinely high-conflict, in which case separate conferences are normal). Schools generally accommodate split parenting plans well — they've seen many.
Almost always no — and your plan should explicitly say so. Daycare and other regular pre-arranged childcare are part of the kids' routine, not third-party care that triggers ROFR. The exemption should be in writing in both the ROFR section and the childcare section so there's no ambiguity.
HIPAA requires patient (or parent) authorization for medical record release. The cleanest approach is for both parents to be on the kids' patient profile at every provider — pediatrician, dentist, specialists — with full record access. Most providers handle this seamlessly when both parents are listed at intake. Your parenting plan should require both parents to keep each other on the authorized-contact list across providers.
Right of first refusal (sometimes called "first right of refusal custody") is a clause that says if a parent can't be with the kids for more than X hours during their parenting time, the other parent gets the option before a babysitter, grandparent, or daycare does.
Decision-making authority is the section of the parenting plan that says who decides what — medical care, school choice, religious upbringing, mental health treatment, extracurriculars. This is what "legal custody" actually means.
How and how often coparents communicate — and what they communicate about — is one of the most-fought-over parts of any parenting plan. Writing it down prevents 80% of those fights before they start.
The exchange section says exactly when, where, and how the kids move between households. The most common-sense thing to write down — and the most common source of fights when it isn't.
Kidtime's free schedule wizard covers the most-negotiated section of any plan.