What Does a Parenting Coordinator Do in Florida?
A parenting coordinator is a court-appointed neutral who helps two parents carry out a parenting plan that already exists. Under Florida Statute 61.125, the coordinator resolves the recurring disputes over exchanges, holidays, school, and travel, and where the court order grants it, decides limited day-to-day issues when the parents deadlock.
The job, stated plainly
A judge already signed your parenting plan. You are still fighting.
That is what parenting coordination was built for. Not the divorce. The eighteen months after, when the plan sits in a drawer and neither of you can agree on what “reasonable notice” means before a dentist appointment.
A coordinator does three things. Interprets the plan when the two of you read the same sentence differently. Builds protocols so the same argument stops repeating. And, when the court order or your written stipulation grants the authority, makes a limited decision so the deadlock ends without a motion.
Section 61.125(2) describes a child-focused process where the coordinator assists parents by “providing education, making recommendations, and, with the prior approval of the parents and the court, making limited decisions within the scope of the court’s order of referral.”
What actually lands on a coordinator’s desk
The disputes are rarely dramatic. They are relentless, which is worse.
Exchange times, exchange locations, and who waits how long before leaving
Holiday and school break schedules that both parents claimed in the same year
Extracurricular signups, travel soccer, and who pays the registration fee
Medical and dental appointments, and what counts as notice
School choice, tutoring, IEP meetings, passports, and out-of-state travel
Communication rules between households, including how fast a text gets answered
Each one, left alone, becomes a motion. A motion is a filing fee, an attorney’s hourly rate, several weeks of waiting, and fifteen minutes in front of a judge who has never met your child. Then it happens again in six weeks over something else.
What a parenting coordinator cannot do
A parenting coordinator cannot modify the substantive terms of your parenting plan. Not the timesharing schedule, not parental responsibility, not child support. Those live with the court. Authority is limited to implementation and to the day-to-day matters named in the order of referral.
The coordinator is also not your therapist, not your child’s therapist, not your attorney, and not an evaluator. A coordinator who starts advocating for one parent has stopped doing the job.
Parenting coordinator, mediator, or judge
Three neutrals, three different jobs. The differences that matter:
Parenting coordinator
Applies after a parenting plan already exists. Can decide only day-to-day issues, and only if the order of referral grants that authority. Lasts for the term set in the appointment order. Confidential under 61.125(8), with the statutory exceptions. Used for repeat implementation fights.
Family mediator
Applies before an agreement exists. Decides nothing. Ends when the agreement is signed. Confidential under Chapter 44. Used to build the original agreement.
Judge
Applies at any stage. Decides everything. Lasts until the case closes. Not confidential, because the hearing is public. Used for contested issues nobody will settle.
How the appointment happens
Three routes, all in section 61.125(3). Both parents agree and stipulate. One parent files a motion. Or the court appoints a coordinator on its own motion.
Practice varies by circuit. The Ninth Judicial Circuit, covering Orange and Osceola counties, requires a hearing and then assigns coordinators from a rotation, stating directly that neither the parties nor their attorneys pick the coordinator. Other circuits let parents name their neutral in a stipulation. Ask before you assume you get to choose.
Domestic violence changes the analysis
Where there has been a history of domestic violence, section 61.125(4) prohibits the court from referring the parties to parenting coordination unless both parents consent. Each party gets the chance to consult an attorney or a domestic violence advocate first, and the court has to find the consent freely and voluntarily given. If coordination goes forward, the court must order safeguards, including adherence to any injunction for protection or conditions of bail, probation, or sentence.
The statute’s definition of that history runs broader than a conviction. It reaches acts under section 741.28, child abuse under section 39.01, and patterns of coercive control.
Screening for this is not a formality. A neutral who cannot spot coercive control will spend six months negotiating pickup times while the thing actually driving the conflict goes untouched.
What it costs
Section 61.125(7) puts fee allocation with the court and bars a judge from ordering coordination without consent unless the parties can actually pay, weighing income, assets, liabilities, and hardship. If a party is indigent, the court cannot order participation unless public funds are available or the other party consents to cover everything.
Real numbers help. The Ninth Judicial Circuit publishes a $500 retainer per party and an $80 hourly rate for its Orange County Parenting Coordination Program, and puts private coordinators in that circuit at retainers of $1,000 to $2,000 per party and hourly rates of $125 to $275 or more. Rates vary by county, by licensure, and by the scope the order assigns.
At Calm in Chaos, coordination fees and the scope of authority are set in writing in the court order or your stipulation before any work starts. Mediation, a separate service, runs $200 per hour with a two hour minimum. The consultation is free.
Who is allowed to do this work
Not everyone. Section 61.125(5) sets the floor: licensure as a mental health professional under Chapter 490 or 491, or a physician under Chapter 458 board certified in psychiatry, or Florida Supreme Court certification as a family law mediator with a master’s degree, or membership in good standing with The Florida Bar. On top of that, three years of postlicensure practice, a Florida Supreme Court certified family mediation training program, at least 24 hours of parenting coordination training, and 4 more hours in domestic violence and child abuse.
Section 61.125 was last amended in 2020, by chapter 2020-2, Laws of Florida. The qualification standards above are current as of the 2025 statutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a parenting coordinator change my parenting plan?
No. A coordinator cannot modify the substantive terms of a parenting plan or a court order. Timesharing, parental responsibility, and support stay with the court. The coordinator’s authority covers implementation and the narrow day-to-day matters the order of referral spells out, and only when the order grants decision-making power.
Is what I say to a parenting coordinator confidential?
Mostly. Section 61.125(8) makes the communications confidential, with exceptions written into the statute: confirming a written agreement, identifying issues without disclosing the communications, addressing compliance, reporting that a case is inappropriate for coordination, protecting someone from domestic violence or child or elder abuse, and proving malpractice or misconduct.
Do both parents have to agree to use one?
Not usually. A Florida court can appoint a coordinator on one party’s motion or on its own motion. The exception is a history of domestic violence, where section 61.125(4) requires informed consent from both parents, given after an opportunity to consult an attorney or a domestic violence advocate.
How long does a parenting coordination appointment last?
The court order sets the term. Many run six months to two years. Families often lean on the coordinator heavily in the first months and barely at all by the end, which is the point. The goal is a set of working protocols, not a permanent third adult in your co-parenting.
What if the other parent refuses to participate?
Non-participation in a court-ordered process is reportable to the court. The coordinator does not enforce the order and has no contempt power. The court does, and a documented record of who showed up and who did not tends to matter at the next hearing.
Stop filing motions over pickup times
If your last three disputes could have been settled in a twenty minute call with a neutral who knows your file, parenting coordination is the process you are missing. Sessions run virtually across Florida, and in person in Hernando, Hillsborough, Lake, Orange, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, and Sumter counties, covering Tampa, Brooksville, Spring Hill, Wesley Chapel, Dade City, Lakeland, Bushnell, and Orlando.
More on the service: Parenting Coordination in Florida
Statute text: Fla. Stat. 61.125
Call (813) 449-2500 or email jessica@calminchaos.net to set up a free consultation.
Written by Jessica Oliver, LCSW, Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator and Qualified Parenting Coordinator under Fla. Stat. 61.125, founder of Calm in Chaos. She holds an MSW from the University of Southern California with a specialization in military trauma and spent close to a decade in inpatient psychiatric units, veterans hospitals, schools, and domestic violence shelters before moving into dispute resolution. She teaches in Cleveland State University’s MSW program and co-hosts The Healing Pod podcast with clinical psychologist Megan McCrae, PhD.
Jessica Oliver is not an attorney and does not provide legal advice or legal representation. This article is general information about Florida law, not advice about your case.
