SB 108

uniform deployed parents custody and visitation act

Overview

This bill adopts the Uniform Deployed Parents Custody and Visitation Act

(UDPCVA), by the Uniform Law Commission, to provide a process and standards for

a temporary delegation of custodial responsibilities when a parent is deployed in

military or other national service.

Under current law, in a legal custody determination, a court is prohibited from

considering whether a service member has been or will be absent from the home for

a call to active duty. In a physical placement determination, a court may allocate a

service member's physical placement periods to the other parent for the duration of

the service member's call to active duty, if the order requires immediate

reinstatement of the prior physical placement schedule upon the service member's

return.

Additionally, under current law, parents may together sign a power of attorney

for a temporary delegation of parental powers for the care and custody of a child to

another person. However, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held in Lubinski v.

Lubinski, 2008 WI App 151, 314 Wis. 2d 395, 761 N.W.2d 676, that a court has no

authority to delegate a service member's allocation of physical placement periods to

another person without the other parent's agreement.

The bill maintains current law relating to determining or revising a legal

custody or physical placement order between parents, but provides two new methods

for creating a temporary delegation of custodial responsibilities to another person

during a parent's deployment: a temporary agreement between the parents or a

temporary court order following a hearing.

Temporary agreement

Under a temporary agreement entered into by the parents, custodial

responsibilities or visitation may be shared with any agreed-upon person. The

agreement must identify the specific arrangements for custodial responsibility or

visitation, a process to resolve any dispute that may arise, and arrangements for the

deploying parent's contact with the child during the deployment and while on leave.

The temporary agreement must be signed by both parents and any other person with

whom custodial responsibility is shared, and, if the child is the subject of an

underlying action affecting the family, the agreement must be filed with the court

that has jurisdiction in that action.

Temporary court order

Under proceedings for a temporary court order, unless a proceeding is

prohibited by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, custodial responsibilities or

visitation may be granted upon a deploying parent's request to a stepparent,

grandparent, or great-grandparent or to an adult who has a parent-like relationship

with the child. The arrangements must be found to be in the best interests of the