New Florida Law Facilitates Safe Exchange of Children in Volatile Co-Parenting Situations
It takes time to settle into a routine after divorce, where your children are with you some of the time and with your ex-spouse the rest of the time. Within a few months, you get used to enjoying the time you have with your children and then spending your ex’s parenting time being productive and catching up on sleep. The worst moments are the parts that the family law courts call “exchange of children,” when you pick up or drop off your children at your ex’s house, or your ex drops them off or picks them up from yours. If you and your ex live far away from each other, you might even hand off the children at a centrally located meetup point, like a Walmart parking lot. The expression on your ex’s face makes your blood boil, and you only feel worse when your kids are safely in your care, telling you about all your ex’s acts of one upmanship, hypocrisy, and all the other things that used to drive you crazy about your ex. At least you are reasonably certain, though, that once this exchange of children is finished, all family members will still be alive and well. Not everyone can enjoy this certainty. A new Florida law requires parenting plans to include additional provisions about safe exchange of children in cases where the court has reason to believe that the children or their parents are at risk. A Boca Raton child custody lawyer can help you draft a parenting plan that includes detailed provisions about child exchange.
Cassie Carli’s Law Designates Safe, Neutral Locations for Child Exchange
In June 2024, Florida enacted the Cassie Carli law to ensure safe drop-offs of children between co-parents. In March 2022, Carli went to a restaurant parking lot in Navarre to pick up her daughter Saylor from Saylor’s, Carli’s ex-boyfriend Marcus Spanevelo. Carli’s family never heard from her again. Saylor was found alive several days later, but Carli’s body was found in Alabama, and Spanevelo received criminal charges related to her death. The court-ordered parenting plan had designated a Walmart parking lot as their meetup point for the child exchange.
The new law requires parenting plans to be specific about the child exchange locations. The judge may approve the residence of a parent or other family member as a child exchange location if there is no history of domestic violence or other reason to believe that the children or parents are in danger. Otherwise, the parenting plan must indicate that child exchanges will take place at “safe exchange locations,” which are parking lots with around-the-clock lighting and security. Sheriff’s office parking lots will be safe exchange locations, as will some retail parking lots, which will be marked as such with purple signs that light up at night.
Contact Schwartz | White About Child Exchange Provisions of Parenting Plans
A South Florida family law attorney can help you and your ex agree on a safe, conflict-proof child exchange location. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
