The AFCC-Ontario Parenting Plan Guide is one of our most widely used and impactful resources. Originally developed by a multidisciplinary Task Force in 2021, the Guide helps parents, legal and mental health professionals, mediators, and judges create child-focused, practical parenting plans following separation or divorce. In 2026, a revised version of the Guide was prepared, and it is now on the AFCC-O website (link below).

The Guide is premised on the view that reducing conflict is in the best interests of children, and that co-operative co-parenting is often desirable, while also recognizing that there are cases involving such issues as family violence and parental mental health or substance misuse that may require restricting the role of one parent in the life of their children.

Since its original release, the Guide has been widely used by many family justice professionals and parents and cited as a valuable resource in over 100 Ontario court decisions (see e.g. Tremblay-Chartier v. Blanchette, 2025 ONSC 6273 (Div. Ct.) and Aguilar v Pesantez, 2026 ONCJ 165).

The Guide provides advice on post-separation parenting and assists in the making of parenting plans that are informed by child development research. The Guide combines knowledge from child development and social science research on the impact of parental separation and divorce on children with practical insights of experienced lawyers, mediators, and mental health professionals about the needs of children whose parents live apart. However, the Guide is not an exhaustive summary of research, and it is not intended to be the sole reference on issues relating to child development and post-separation parenting.  Further, each child and family situation is unique, and while social science research is typically based on group findings, those findings may not be applicable to individual cases.