The single most important term in modern Illinois family law. Since 2016, Illinois rewrote its family law statute and removed the terms “child custody” and “visitation” from the legal code. They were replaced by the term allocation of parental responsibilities — which splits into two parts:
- Decision-making — who makes the major choices for the child: healthcare, education,
extra-curricular activities, and/or religion.
- Parenting time — when the child is with each parent (the schedule).
What it looks like in practice: decision-making can be joint (both parents decide together) or sole (one parent decides). Parenting time is the actual calendar. A common outcome: both parents share decision-making, but the child lives mostly with one and has a detailed schedule with the other.
Watch out for: “allocation” covers both the big decisions and the schedule — don’t focus on one and forget the other. The parenting plan is where both get written down.
