Originally published: April 30, 2020 -- Updated: September 14, 2022

Update: The right of first refusal, as discussed below, may address situations where one parent is unavailable to care for children during their scheduled parenting time. However, if these situations occur frequently, and a parent is regularly unavailable to address children's needs when required, the other parent may believe that it will be necessary to modify their child custody agreement and ensure that children will be able to have the care they need from a parent going forward. By understanding the requirements for post-divorce modifications, a parent can make sure these situations will be addressed correctly.

Modifications to the allocation of parental responsibilities or parenting time will usually only be allowed if there has been a significant change in circumstances since the original child custody agreement was put into place. There are multiple factors in the lives of parents or children that may be changes that are considered significant enough to warrant a child custody modification. For example, if a parent has found a new job with different hours, and they now require a babysitter or family member to pick children up from school and care for them during the evenings, the other parent may ask for their parenting plan to be modified so they can care for the children during these times. 

At Farooqi & Husain Law Office, we have years of experience representing parents in the DuPage County Muslim community in a wide variety of divorce and family law matters. We often speak with parents who have questions about child custody, known as “parental responsibilities” under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA). The following are some of the common questions we receive, along with answers that can help you to gain a better understanding of child custody in Illinois. If you plan to move forward with a divorce in which parental responsibilities will need to be allocated, you should seek advice from a DuPage County family lawyer.

What Are the Different Types of Parental Responsibilities?

There are two different types of parental responsibilities under the IMDMA: significant decision-making responsibilities and parenting time. The language in the IMDMA changed in the recent past, incorporating these forms of parental responsibilities instead of legal and physical custody. You can think about significant decision-making responsibilities like legal custody (when a parent has the right to make significant decisions about the child’s life and upbringing), and you can think about parenting time like physical custody or visitation (when the child spends time with the parent and the parent provides caretaking functions).

Do Parents Have a Say in the Allocation of Parental Responsibilities?

Parents can have a say in the allocation of parental responsibilities if they are able to work together to develop a parenting plan in which they allocate parental responsibilities. A family lawyer in DuPage County can help with this process. As long as parents allocate parental responsibilities in a parenting plan based on the child’s best interests, the court can approve the plan, and it can have the same legal force as an allocation judgment. However, if the parents cannot agree, then the court will allocate parental responsibilities, and the parents will play much less of a role in determining how significant decision-making responsibilities are parenting time are allocated and shared.

If you are involved in a contentious child custody battle, or if your ex is threatening to ask the court to modify a parenting plan or allocation judgment in order to restrict your parenting time, you are likely very concerned about whether this is a possibility. There are many different reasons that one parent might like to restrict the parenting time of the other parent. Sometimes a desire to restrict parenting time arises out of very legitimate concerns about the child’s safety or well-being.

At other times, a parent might try to restrict parenting time simply because she or he does not like the other parent’s approach to caretaking or does not approve of the parent’s lifestyle choices. It is important to know that, if your ex is threatening to restrict parenting time, such restrictions only occur in limited circumstances under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA).

If your ex is threatening to attempt to restrict parenting time, you should get in touch with one of our Oakbrook Terrace child custody lawyers as soon as possible. In the meantime, we want to provide you with more information about parenting time restrictions and why they happen under Illinois law.

For Muslim families in the Oakbrook Terrace area, family law issues involving parenthood and the termination of parental rights can be difficult ones to face. Generally speaking, the Illinois courts want to do their best to keep both parents in a child’s life and to ensure that the child has both parents play a role in the child’s life and upbringing as long as it is in the best interests of the child. Yet in some situations, it may be in the best interests of the child to terminate the rights of a parent. What does it mean when the law decides to terminate a parent’s rights? In short, it means that the parent not only will not be responsible financially for the child, but that parent also will not make any decisions about the child’s care or upbringing.

Voluntary Termination and the Adoption Act

It is important to understand that Illinois law does not allow one parent simply to petition to terminate the other parent’s rights. Rather, parental rights can be terminated either voluntarily or involuntarily, and the court takes these cases very seriously. Under 750 ILCS 50/1 and other relevant Illinois law, the voluntary termination of a parent’s rights generally can occur in one of the following circumstances: