Many parents in Kenton, Campbell, and Boone counties enter the custody process having heard that Kentucky is a “50/50 state” and assuming a judge will automatically split time down the middle. That assumption is close, but not exact. As of July 15, 2026, cases involving domestic violence allegations follow a meaningfully different analysis than they did even twelve months ago. What the law actually says, rather than what people say about it, is where building a durable parenting plan has to begin.
At Schaffner Family Law & Mediation, we work with parents across Northern Kentucky to translate statutory language into plans that hold up in court and in daily life. Founding attorney Tasha K. Schaffner has been practicing family law in the Commonwealth since 2004 and holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer rating for professional excellence and ethical standards. The analysis below reflects the law as it stands today, including the 2026 amendment that many online summaries still haven’t caught up to.
What Kentucky’s Rebuttable Presumption Actually Says
KRS 403.270 creates a rebuttable presumption, a legal assumption that holds unless one party produces enough evidence to overcome it. Specifically, the statute presumes that joint custody and equally shared parenting time serve a child’s best interest. Kentucky first enacted this presumption through House Bill 528, effective July 14, 2018, marking a significant shift away from the prior era when one parent, usually the mother, was more likely to receive primary residential custody by default.
Two concepts are worth keeping distinct. Joint legal custody is shared authority over major decisions about a child’s education, healthcare, and religious upbringing. Joint physical custody (sometimes called equally shared parenting time) refers to the actual day-to-day schedule of where the child sleeps and lives. A court can, and often does, award joint legal custody while assigning an unequal physical schedule when circumstances support it. The presumption covers both, but the analysis for each can differ.
The parent seeking a different arrangement carries the burden of proof: showing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that equal time or joint decision-making wouldn’t serve the child’s best interest. Preponderance means “more likely than not” (a lower bar than the criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt, but still a real evidentiary showing). Judges don’t depart from the presumption because one parent prefers a different outcome.
When Courts Move Away from Equal Time
Kentucky courts weigh the statutory best interest factors listed in KRS 403.270 when evaluating whether the presumption has been rebutted. These include the mental and physical health of all parties, each parent’s involvement in the child’s care before the separation, the child’s adjustment to home and school, and each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent.
Geography comes up frequently in Northern Kentucky cases. When one parent lives in Covington or Florence and the other has relocated to the Cincinnati side of the river, the logistics of a strict week-on/week-off schedule through the school year can itself become a best interest question. Courts look at the child’s proximity to school, community, and extended family, not just the distance between front doors.
Even when a court finds that equal parenting time isn’t appropriate, KRS 403.270(2) requires the judge to construct a schedule that maximizes each parent’s time with the child consistent with the child’s welfare. Successfully rebutting the presumption doesn’t hand a parent primary custody by default; the court still builds a schedule designed to keep both parents meaningfully involved.
The 2026 Amendment That Reshapes the Analysis
Senate Bill 122, signed into law as 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 92 and effective July 15, 2026, amended both KRS 403.270 and KRS 403.315 in ways that directly affect how custody hearings proceed when domestic violence is part of the picture.
Under the amended KRS 403.270, a court must now consider domestic violence or abuse allegations and make written findings on those allegations before weighing any other best interest factor. This written-findings requirement is procedurally significant: at an early hearing where a domestic violence order is already in the case, the judge must address that issue on the record first, before the broader custody analysis can move forward. Family Court in Kenton, Campbell, and Boone counties operates under Kentucky’s “One Family, One Judge, One Court” model, so the same judge overseeing the domestic violence order will later work through the custody analysis. That sequencing is especially consequential for a parent on either side of such an allegation.
The amendment to KRS 403.315 goes further. Before July 15, 2026, a domestic violence order removed the statutory presumption only as to the parent against whom it was entered. Under current law, once a court finds that a parent committed two or more acts of domestic violence or abuse, a reverse presumption takes effect: joint custody and equal parenting time are presumed not to be in the child’s best interest for that parent. Several additional protections accompany this shift:
- Treatment prerequisites: A parent subject to the reverse presumption must complete required programming, which can include batterer intervention, parenting classes, and substance-use or mental-health treatment, before receiving custody or unsupervised visitation.
- Protective parent’s time: The statute bars a court from reducing the protective parent’s parenting time solely as a means of increasing the child’s contact with the parent who committed the domestic violence.
- Rebuttable, not absolute: The reverse presumption can still be overcome with sufficient evidence, but the burden has shifted. The parent with the domestic violence findings must affirmatively demonstrate why joint custody or equal time would serve the child’s best interest.
Turning the Presumption Into a Working Parenting Plan
Starting from the presumption of equal time, parents and their attorneys have to choose a physical schedule that actually functions. Three models appear frequently in Kentucky parenting plans:
- 2-2-5-5 rotation: Each parent has two consecutive weekdays, then parents alternate a five-day stretch that includes the weekend. Transitions happen on fixed days each week, giving children predictability.
- 3-4-4-3 schedule: The child alternates between three days with one parent and four days with the other, then the blocks flip the following week. Each parent gets equal time over a two-week cycle.
- Week-on/week-off: The child spends one full week with each parent, alternating at a consistent handoff time. This model reduces transitions and is often preferred for school-age children who benefit from longer blocks of stability.
Holiday and summer provisions typically override the regular weekly rotation. Getting those provisions specific (which holidays, which parent has first choice in even versus odd years, how summer is blocked) prevents the disputes that arise when parents later read the same language differently.
Drafting Decision-Making Terms
A well-drafted plan separates the physical schedule from legal custody decision-making. Joint legal custody is the default, but the plan should define how disagreements get resolved. Tie-breaking authority can be allocated to one parent for specific categories (education decisions to the parent in whose school district the child primarily resides, for example) without collapsing into sole legal custody across the board. The more precisely those terms are drafted, the less often parents end up back in court over a routine decision.
The Two-Year Modification Bar
Under KRS 403.340, a court won’t modify a custody decree within two years of entry unless the child’s present environment may seriously endanger their physical, mental, moral, or emotional health, or the custodian has placed the child with a de facto custodian (a non-parent who has served as the child’s primary caregiver for a qualifying period). A de facto custodian can arise when a grandparent or other relative has provided primary care during the parents’ separation. Because that two-year bar applies quickly after a decree is entered, getting the schedule and decision-making terms right at the outset isn’t just preferable; it’s practically necessary.
A Plan Built Around What the Law Says Now
The 50/50 presumption is the starting point for every custody analysis in Kentucky, not a fixed outcome. It’s a legal default the court will follow unless the evidence directs otherwise. Since July 2026, the domestic violence provisions carry more procedural weight than they did before. A plan drafted without accounting for the amended statutory framework, or without specificity on holiday terms, decision-making authority, and modification thresholds, leaves gaps that become problems later.
If you’re working through custody in Kenton, Campbell, or Boone County and want to understand how the current law applies to your situation, contact us to get started. You can also reach us at (859) 577-7552.