What Happens If One Parent Doesn't Follow the Parenting Plan?

If your co-parent keeps ignoring the residential schedule, you are not stuck waiting it out. Washington law gives you a direct way to bring the problem back to the judge and to make the other parent answer for it. This topic is part of Washington divorce, custody, and support law.

The First Move Is a Motion for Contempt

A parenting plan entered by a Washington superior court is binding on both parents. When one parent stops following it, the other parent can file a motion for contempt asking the court to enforce the plan. This is the standard remedy, and it is spelled out in RCW 26.09.160. Under that statute, a motion may be filed to start a contempt action to coerce a parent to comply with an order establishing residential provisions for a child. If the court finds reasonable cause to believe the parent has not complied, it may issue an order to show cause, which requires the other parent to appear and explain why the relief you are asking for should not be granted. Related guides cover What Happens If a Parent Violates Custody Orders? and What Is a Parenting Plan in Washington?.

That order to show cause is the turning point. It forces the noncompliant parent into court to account for the missed time, rather than letting the violations pile up while you absorb them.

The Standard: Bad-Faith Noncompliance

The court is not looking to punish every hiccup. RCW 26.09.160 directs the judge to decide, based on all the facts and circumstances, whether the parent, in bad faith, has failed to comply with the residential schedule. That bad-faith requirement is the heart of the case. A parent who withholds the children on purpose, refuses exchanges, or tries to hold one part of the plan hostage to another is acting in the way the statute targets. A parent who missed a weekend because the child was hospitalized is not.

The statute also builds in a presumption that favors the parent who was denied time. Under RCW 26.09.160, the noncomplying parent is deemed to have the present ability to comply unless they prove otherwise by a preponderance of the evidence, and they carry the burden of establishing a reasonable excuse by that same standard. So once you show the schedule was not followed, the other parent has to convince the court there was a legitimate reason. That structure is a meaningful advantage for the parent bringing the motion.

What the Court Can Order When It Finds Contempt

When a Snohomish County judge finds that a parent, in bad faith, did not follow the residential provisions of the parenting plan, RCW 26.09.160 sets out specific consequences rather than leaving them open. The court is directed to order make-up residential time equal to the time you missed with your child. It orders the noncomplying parent to pay all court costs and reasonable attorney fees caused by the noncompliance, plus any reasonable expenses you incurred in locating or returning the child. And it imposes a civil penalty of not less than one hundred dollars.

If the parent does it again, the response is stronger. On a second failure within three years to comply with a residential provision, RCW 26.09.160 doubles the make-up time to twice the amount you missed, keeps the fees and costs in place, and raises the civil penalty to not less than two hundred fifty dollars.

The statute reaches further for a parent who simply refuses to obey. The court may order the parent jailed in the county jail if the parent is presently able to comply and is presently unwilling to. That parent can be held until they agree to comply, but not for more than one hundred eighty days. Jail is a last resort aimed at genuine defiance, but it exists so that a parenting plan is not something a parent can walk away from without consequence.

What Contempt Does Not Do

A contempt finding enforces the plan you already have. It does not change that plan. If you have concluded that the schedule itself needs to change, whether because the pattern of violations shows it is not working or because circumstances have shifted, that is a modification question, and modification of a parenting plan runs through RCW 26.09.260 with its own standards. Many parents ultimately use both tools: contempt to address the broken schedule now, and a modification petition to fix the schedule going forward. Keeping the two separate in your mind, and in your paperwork, helps you ask the court for the right thing at the right time.

It is also worth knowing that RCW 26.09.160 discourages weak or retaliatory filings. If the court decides a contempt motion was brought without a reasonable basis, it can order the parent who filed it to pay the other side's costs, reasonable attorney fees, and a civil penalty of not less than one hundred dollars. That is a good reason to make sure your motion rests on a solid record of actual, bad-faith noncompliance before you file.

Getting Help With Enforcement

Bringing a contempt motion is as much about presentation as it is about paperwork. The stronger your record of the missed time and the other parent's conduct, the clearer the bad faith becomes to the court. If your co-parent keeps ignoring the parenting plan, the Law Office of Chad Foster can help you weigh whether contempt, modification, or both make sense for your family here in Snohomish County. Reach out when you are ready to talk it through.