Child Custody Laws in Kansas

Legal custody, residency, and parenting time are decided by the child's best interests. Joint legal custody is listed first in order of preference; if the court orders sole legal custody it must state specific findings. Factors include each parent's role before and after separation, the parents' wishes, the wishes of a child of sufficient age and maturity, the child's needs and relationships, adjustment to home and school, each parent's willingness to support the child's bond with the other parent, domestic abuse, the parents' ability to cooperate, schedules and locations, and sex-offender or child-abuse issues. No specific age is set for the child's preference. An agreed parenting plan is presumed to be in the child's best interests.

Under Kansas's interstate custody law, a Kansas court has temporary emergency jurisdiction if the child is present in Kansas and has been abandoned, or emergency action is needed to protect the child because the child, a sibling or a parent is being mistreated or abused or threatened with it. If another state has jurisdiction, the Kansas order lasts only for the period the court sets so an order can be obtained from that state.

Kansas has no single statewide requirement; if your court's local rules require it, you must attend any required parenting, co-parenting, or divorce class. If spouses do not agree, they may go to mediation voluntarily or one may ask the court to order it.