Custody Schedule Planner
Build a parenting schedule from the standard rotations courts see most — 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, 3-4-4-3, week-on-week-off, or every other weekend — then count the overnights exactly. The percentage carries straight into your state’s child support calculator, and the calendar exports and prints.
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Estimate only — not legal advice. This is the published math for custody schedule planner, shown as a range. Your actual outcome depends on facts, evidence, and decisions this page cannot see.
A 50/50 schedule on a two-week cycle: two nights with one parent, two with the other, then a three-night weekend that alternates. Frequent exchanges keep both parents in a young child’s week.
January 2026
A — Parent AB — Parent B⇄ exchange
Overnights in 2026
182
Parent A
49.9%
183
Parent B
50.1%
365
Nights counted
full year
156
Exchanges
handovers a year
This counts the base rotation only. Holiday, school-break and summer blocks in a real order move the total — often by a week or more — and schedules are subject to court approval.
Carry 183 overnights into a child support calculation
Some states build parenting time into the guideline formula and some do not. Pick a state to see which rule applies there, with this overnight count already filled in.
Nothing you enter here leaves your device — the schedule is saved in this browser only. (Custody Schedule Planner)
Source of record
Courts retain discretion — guideline results can be adjusted or deviated from. This is the published guideline math, not a prediction of your order.
🎓 Understand this tool
What it is
A parenting-time planner that turns a named rotation into a real calendar and counts the overnights it produces. The overnight count is the figure support worksheets ask for, so this is the bridge between how a family actually lives and how a guideline is calculated.
How it works
Each rotation is a repeating two-week cycle of nights, anchored to Monday so the pattern reads the same whoever opens it. The planner expands that cycle across the year and counts which parent each night belongs to. Overnights, not daytime hours, are what guidelines key on, because a night is unambiguous and provable from a calendar. Exchanges are counted too, because the practical difference between the even rotations is not the split — they are all close to 182 nights each — but how often a child changes homes, which ranges from about one handover a week to nearly three.
Getting the most from it
- Pick the rotation closest to what you are discussing. The summaries describe how each one feels week to week, not just how it divides.
- Set which parent starts the cycle. On alternating schedules this changes who has which weekend, and it matters to a real family.
- Read the overnight count. That is the number a support guideline uses in states that adjust for parenting time.
- Carry the count into your state’s child support page, or export the calendar and print it to talk through.
Reading your result
The overnight percentage describes the base rotation. A real order almost always adds holiday, school-break and summer blocks on top, which can move the annual total by a week or more in either direction. Treat the figure as the starting shape of a schedule and expect the final number to differ once the exceptions are written in.
What it can't tell you
This cannot tell you what schedule suits your child, what a court in your county tends to approve, or how to handle distance, school runs, or shift work. It does not draft a parenting plan and is not a substitute for one. Schedules are subject to court approval, and a family lawyer in your state is the person to ask about yours.
Frequently asked questions
Child support guidelines that account for parenting time almost always count overnights rather than hours, because an overnight is unambiguous and easy to prove from a calendar. That is why this planner counts nights: it produces the number a support worksheet actually asks for.
Change alerts — when a state revises the guideline or deadline behind this page
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