Parenting arrangements made shortly after separation are often designed around a family’s circumstances at that time. As children grow, parents change jobs, families move, and new educational or medical needs emerge, an arrangement that once worked may become difficult or impractical.

In Ontario, parenting arrangements are not necessarily permanent. Parents may agree to adjust an arrangement, or one parent may seek a court-ordered change. Where a parenting order is already in place, however, the court will generally require more than a preference for a different schedule. The focus remains on whether circumstances have materially changed and what arrangement is in the child’s best interests.

What Does a Parenting Arrangement Cover?

A parenting arrangement can address both the time a child spends with each parent and responsibility for making important decisions. Under current family law terminology, these concepts are called parenting time (formerly “access”) and decision-making responsibility (formerly “custody”).

Arrangements may address weekly schedules, holidays, vacations, transportation, school attendance, extracurricular activities, medical decisions, religious upbringing, and other aspects of a child’s care. They may be recorded in a separation agreement, parenting plan, consent order, or court order.

Why Might a Parenting Arrangement Need to Change?

A family’s circumstances can look very different several years after separation. A schedule designed for a young child, for example, may become less practical once the child starts school, joins extracurricular activities, or develops a busier social life.

Changes may also arise because of a parent’s circumstances, including a new work schedule, shift work, relocation, remarriage, transportation difficulties, or changes to childcare. More significant concerns may include changing medical or educational needs, persistent difficulties with exchanges, family violence, or a parent’s inability to exercise scheduled parenting time.

Changing an Arrangement by Agreement

Not every change requires a contested court proceeding. When parents agree that an existing schedule should be revised, they may negotiate a new parenting plan or amend their separation agreement.

Although parents sometimes make informal adjustments for occasional scheduling issues, documenting an ongoing change can provide greater clarity and reduce uncertainty if disagreements arise later.

Where an existing court order governs parenting arrangements, parents may also seek to have an agreed change reflected in a consent order.

What Is a Material Change in Circumstances?

When one parent asks a court to vary an existing parenting order, an important threshold issue is whether there has been a material change in circumstances.

Under Ontario’s Children’s Law Reform Act, a court cannot vary a parenting or contact order unless there has been a material change in circumstances that affects, or is likely to affect, the child’s best interests. Similar principles apply under the federal Divorce Act.

A material change is generally more than a minor inconvenience or disagreement. The change must be significant enough that the parenting arrangement may need to be reconsidered in light of the child’s current circumstances.

The Child’s Best Interests Remain Central

Establishing changed circumstances does not automatically determine what a new parenting arrangement should look like. The court must still consider the child’s best interests.

The Divorce Act directs courts to consider only the best interests of the child, with primary consideration given to the child’s physical, emotional, and psychological safety, security, and well-being.

Relevant factors can include the child’s age and needs, relationships with each parent and other important people, history of care, each parent’s ability to meet the child’s needs, proposed plans, the parents’ ability to communicate and cooperate, and any family violence. A child’s views and preferences may also be considered depending on age and maturity.

A Child’s Changing Age and Needs

Parenting arrangements commonly evolve as children move through different stages of development. School schedules, homework, extracurricular activities, transportation, friendships, and employment may make an older child’s schedule more complicated than it was when the arrangement was established.

A child’s views may also become increasingly relevant as they mature. There is no single age at which children determine their own parenting arrangement. Their views remain one factor in the broader best-interests assessment.

What If a Parent’s Work Schedule Changes?

Employment changes can also affect parenting arrangements. A parent may begin shift work, travel more frequently, work longer hours, or obtain a more flexible schedule.

Depending on the circumstances, a revised arrangement might address overnight parenting time, childcare, transportation, school pickups, or scheduling around rotating shifts. The significance of any employment change depends on how it affects the child and the operation of the existing arrangement.

Moving and Relocation Can Raise Additional Issues

A change of residence can range from moving nearby to relocating to another city, province, or country. Different legal requirements may apply where the move qualifies as a relocation under family law legislation.

The Divorce Act contains notice requirements for changes in residence and additional rules for relocations expected to have a significant impact on the child’s relationships with people who have parenting time, decision-making responsibility, or contact.

Ontario’s Children’s Law Reform Act also contains relocation provisions. A qualifying relocation carried out in accordance with the legislation can constitute a material change in circumstances for the purpose of varying a parenting order.

Can Decision-Making Responsibility Be Changed Too?

Changes are not limited to parenting time. Circumstances may also lead parents to reconsider how major decisions about the child are made. Decision-making responsibility can include education, health, culture, language, religion, spirituality, and significant extracurricular activities. Responsibility may be allocated to one parent, shared, or divided by subject matter.

Where the original structure is no longer workable because circumstances have significantly changed, a court may be asked to reconsider it. As with parenting time, the child’s best interests remain central.

What Happens When Parents Cannot Agree?

Parents who disagree about changing a parenting arrangement may consider negotiation, mediation, collaborative family law, or other family dispute resolution processes where appropriate.

If no agreement can be reached, one parent may seek to vary the existing parenting order. The court can then determine whether the legal requirements for variation have been met and, if so, what arrangement serves the child’s best interests.

Relevant evidence may include parenting schedules, school arrangements, communications between parents, employment schedules, medical information, transportation concerns, and information about the child’s needs.

Parenting Arrangements Can Evolve With a Family

Parenting arrangements are intended to provide children with structure and predictability after separation, but families rarely remain unchanged. Children grow older, parents’ circumstances evolve, and existing arrangements may eventually need to be reconsidered.

Whether a change can be made by agreement or requires a formal variation will depend on the existing agreement or order, the nature of the proposed change, and the circumstances of the child and family.

Understanding how Ontario family law approaches material changes, parenting time, decision-making responsibility, relocation, and the child’s best interests can help parents understand the framework that applies when an existing arrangement no longer reflects their circumstances.

Contact Bortolussi Family Law in Vaughan for Thorough Advice on Changing a Parenting Arrangement

If you are considering changing a parenting arrangement in Ontario, responding to a request to vary parenting time, addressing changes to decision-making responsibility, or dealing with a parenting dispute following separation, Bortolussi Family Law can help you understand the legal process and the options that may be available.

Contact our team of experienced family lawyers by calling 416-987-3300 or reach out online to discuss parenting agreements and other Ontario separation and divorce matters involving children.