Time-sharing and child support in Florida
Florida reads parenting time as a share of the year’s overnights. Where a parent exercises at least 20 percent of the overnights of the year, the guideline applies a different calculation, and Florida calls the schedule itself time-sharing rather than custody or visitation.
What is the time-sharing figure in Florida?
20%
Florida uses a percentage of the year’s overnights. Where a parent exercises at least 20 percent of the overnights of the year, the Florida guideline applies its gross-up calculation instead of the ordinary one, which changes how each household’s income is applied to the cost of raising the child.
The Florida figure is a percentage, not a night count. The overnight equivalent that gets quoted is arithmetic on the length of the year rather than a number Florida sets, so a Florida schedule is safest described as a share of the year rather than as a target number of nights.
- Florida — Fla. Stat. § 61.30(11)(b)8. (2025). Verified .The statute states a percentage of the year's overnights ("at least 20 percent of the overnights of the year"), not a night count. 73 overnights is arithmetic on 365 and appears nowhere in the statute, so it is derived and display-only — never the stored value.
What to know before you file in Florida
Florida requires a parenting plan in every case that involves time-sharing, and the state supreme court publishes the family law form for it. Florida asks the plan to describe how the parents will share the daily tasks of raising the child, the time-sharing schedule itself, and the methods and technologies the parents will use to communicate.
Because the Florida figure is a share of the year, a Florida time-sharing schedule is worth counting across all twelve months rather than across a fortnight. A rotation that looks generous in term time can fall well short of the share once the summer weeks and the holiday rotation have been allocated, and it is the share the guideline reads.
A Florida parenting plan is filed as part of the case, so the document the parents write is the document that governs afterwards. Spelling out exchange times and locations, the holiday rotation and the school-break weeks leaves a Florida plan able to answer questions that would otherwise need another hearing to settle.
The Florida form
The Florida family law form on which parents set out parental responsibility, the time-sharing schedule including holidays and school breaks, and how they will communicate about the children.