Bill Text: IL HB5509 | 2017-2018 | 100th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. Deletes language providing that nothing in the Act requires that each parent be allocated decision-making responsibilities. Provides that if, within the first year after a child is born, parentage is established under the Illinois Parentage Act of 2015, then a court shall award equal decision-making and parenting time unless a court finds that such an award would seriously endanger the child.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Failed) 2019-01-08 - Session Sine Die [HB5509 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2017-HB5509-Introduced.html

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100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2017 and 2018 HB5509 Introduced 2/16/2018, by Rep. La Shawn K. Ford SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
750 ILCS 5/602.5
750 ILCS 5/602.7
Amends the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. Provides that if, within the first year after a child is born, parentage is established under the Illinois Parentage Act of 2015, then a court shall award equal decision-making and parenting time unless a court finds that such an award would seriously endanger the child.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning civil law.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of
Marriage Act is amended by changing Sections 602.5 and 602.7 as
follows:
(750 ILCS 5/602.5)
Sec. 602.5. Allocation of parental responsibilities:
decision-making.
(a) Generally. The court shall allocate decision-making
responsibilities according to the child's best interests.
Nothing in this Act requires that each parent be allocated
decision-making responsibilities.
(b) Allocation of significant decision-making
responsibilities. Unless the parents otherwise agree in
writing on an allocation of significant decision-making
responsibilities, or the issue of the allocation of parental
responsibilities has been reserved under Section 401, the court
shall make the determination. The court shall allocate to one
or both of the parents the significant decision-making
responsibility for each significant issue affecting the child.
Those significant issues shall include, without limitation,
the following:

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(1) Education, including the choice of schools and
tutors.
(2) Health, including all decisions relating to the
medical, dental, and psychological needs of the child and
to the treatments arising or resulting from those needs.
(3) Religion, subject to the following provisions:
(A) The court shall allocate decision-making
responsibility for the child's religious upbringing in
accordance with any express or implied agreement
between the parents.
(B) The court shall consider evidence of the
parents' past conduct as to the child's religious
upbringing in allocating decision-making
responsibilities consistent with demonstrated past
conduct in the absence of an express or implied
agreement between the parents.
(C) The court shall not allocate any aspect of the
child's religious upbringing if it determines that the
parents do not or did not have an express or implied
agreement for such religious upbringing or that there
is insufficient evidence to demonstrate a course of
conduct regarding the child's religious upbringing
that could serve as a basis for any such order.
(4) Extracurricular activities.
(c) Determination of child's best interests. In
determining the child's best interests for purposes of

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allocating significant decision-making responsibilities, the
court shall consider all relevant factors, including, without
limitation, the following:
(1) the wishes of the child, taking into account the
child's maturity and ability to express reasoned and
independent preferences as to decision-making;
(2) the child's adjustment to his or her home, school,
and community;
(3) the mental and physical health of all individuals
involved;
(4) the ability of the parents to cooperate to make
decisions, or the level of conflict between the parties
that may affect their ability to share decision-making;
(5) the level of each parent's participation in past
significant decision-making with respect to the child;
(6) any prior agreement or course of conduct between
the parents relating to decision-making with respect to the
child;
(7) the wishes of the parents;
(8) the child's needs;
(9) the distance between the parents' residences, the
cost and difficulty of transporting the child, each
parent's and the child's daily schedules, and the ability
of the parents to cooperate in the arrangement;
(10) whether a restriction on decision-making is
appropriate under Section 603.10;

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(11) the willingness and ability of each parent to
facilitate and encourage a close and continuing
relationship between the other parent and the child;
(12) the physical violence or threat of physical
violence by the child's parent directed against the child;
(13) the occurrence of abuse against the child or other
member of the child's household;
(14) whether one of the parents is a sex offender, and
if so, the exact nature of the offense and what, if any,
treatment in which the parent has successfully
participated; and
(15) any other factor that the court expressly finds to
be relevant.
(d) A parent shall have sole responsibility for making
routine decisions with respect to the child and for emergency
decisions affecting the child's health and safety during that
parent's parenting time.
(e) In allocating significant decision-making
responsibilities, the court shall not consider conduct of a
parent that does not affect that parent's relationship to the
child.
(Source: P.A. 99-90, eff. 1-1-16.)
(750 ILCS 5/602.7)
Sec. 602.7. Allocation of parental responsibilities:
parenting time.

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(a) Best interests. The court shall allocate parenting time
according to the child's best interests.
(b) Allocation of parenting time. Unless the parents
present a mutually agreed written parenting plan and that plan
is approved by the court, the court shall allocate parenting
time. It is presumed both parents are fit and the court shall
not place any restrictions on parenting time as defined in
Section 600 and described in Section 603.10, unless it finds by
a preponderance of the evidence that a parent's exercise of
parenting time would seriously endanger the child's physical,
mental, moral, or emotional health.
In determining the child's best interests for purposes of
allocating parenting time, the court shall consider all
relevant factors, including, without limitation, the
following:
(1) the wishes of each parent seeking parenting time;
(2) the wishes of the child, taking into account the
child's maturity and ability to express reasoned and
independent preferences as to parenting time;
(3) the amount of time each parent spent performing
caretaking functions with respect to the child in the 24
months preceding the filing of any petition for allocation
of parental responsibilities or, if the child is under 2
years of age, since the child's birth;
(4) any prior agreement or course of conduct between
the parents relating to caretaking functions with respect

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to the child;
(5) the interaction and interrelationship of the child
with his or her parents and siblings and with any other
person who may significantly affect the child's best
interests;
(6) the child's adjustment to his or her home, school,
and community;
(7) the mental and physical health of all individuals
involved;
(8) the child's needs;
(9) the distance between the parents' residences, the
cost and difficulty of transporting the child, each
parent's and the child's daily schedules, and the ability
of the parents to cooperate in the arrangement;
(10) whether a restriction on parenting time is
appropriate;
(11) the physical violence or threat of physical
violence by the child's parent directed against the child
or other member of the child's household;
(12) the willingness and ability of each parent to
place the needs of the child ahead of his or her own needs;
(13) the willingness and ability of each parent to
facilitate and encourage a close and continuing
relationship between the other parent and the child;
(14) the occurrence of abuse against the child or other
member of the child's household;

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(15) whether one of the parents is a convicted sex
offender or lives with a convicted sex offender and, if so,
the exact nature of the offense and what if any treatment
the offender has successfully participated in; the parties
are entitled to a hearing on the issues raised in this
paragraph (15);
(16) the terms of a parent's military family-care plan
that a parent must complete before deployment if a parent
is a member of the United States Armed Forces who is being
deployed; and
(17) any other factor that the court expressly finds to
be relevant.
(b-5) If, within the first year after a child is born,
parentage is established under the Illinois Parentage Act of
2015, then a court shall award equal decision-making to each
parent unless a court finds that a parent's exercise of
decision-making would seriously endanger the child's physical,
mental, moral, or emotional health.
(c) In allocating parenting time, the court shall not
consider conduct of a parent that does not affect that parent's
relationship to the child.
(d) Upon motion, the court may allow a parent who is
deployed or who has orders to be deployed as a member of the
United States Armed Forces to designate a person known to the
child to exercise reasonable substitute visitation on behalf of
the deployed parent, if the court determines that substitute

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visitation is in the best interests of the child. In
determining whether substitute visitation is in the best
interests of the child, the court shall consider all of the
relevant factors listed in subsection (b) of this Section and
apply those factors to the person designated as a substitute
for the deployed parent for visitation purposes. Visitation
orders entered under this subsection are subject to subsections
(e) and (f) of Section 602.9 and subsections (c) and (d) of
Section 603.10.
(e) If the street address of a parent is not identified
pursuant to Section 708 of this Act, the court shall require
the parties to identify reasonable alternative arrangements
for parenting time by the other parent including, but not
limited to, parenting time of the minor child at the residence
of another person or at a local public or private facility.
(Source: P.A. 99-90, eff. 1-1-16.)