When a child has autism, the file that decides a time-sharing case is usually not the one the parents bring to the first meeting. It is the clinical and school record that shows what the child actually needs, how the child does when those needs are met and what happens when they are not. Most attorneys request the diagnostic report and stop there. Here is what I ask for when I am retained and why each piece matters.
The diagnostic evaluation and everything that came after it
The original diagnosis tells the court that the child has autism. It does not tell the court what the child needs today. A report from age three says very little about a nine-year-old. Ask for the most recent psychological or developmental evaluation, any re-evaluations and any adaptive behavior assessment such as the Vineland. Those documents describe current functioning across communication, daily living skills and social behavior, which is the level the parenting plan has to be written at.
ABA treatment plans and the data behind them
If the child receives applied behavior analysis, the provider writes a treatment plan roughly every six months and collects data at every session. Request the full set: the plans, the goals, the progress graphs and the session notes. This is the most useful record in the case because it is contemporaneous and it was not written for litigation. It shows whether the child made progress, when progress stalled and what was happening at home at the time. It also shows attendance, which parent brought the child and who cancelled.
Ask specifically for caregiver training records. ABA providers are required to train parents and they document who attended and what was practiced. If one parent completed the training and the other did not, the record will say so without anyone having to characterize it.
The behavior intervention plan and incident reports
Children with significant behavior have a functional behavior assessment and a behavior intervention plan, either from the ABA provider or the school. Request both along with any incident reports and ABC data (antecedent, behavior, consequence). These records identify what triggers the child’s hardest moments and what calms them. When elopement, aggression or self-injury is part of the picture, this is where the safety provisions of a parenting plan come from. It is also where you can see whether a behavior shows up in one home and not the other.
School records beyond the IEP
Everyone asks for the IEP. Also ask for the evaluations that support it, quarterly progress reports on IEP goals, attendance, the parent communication log, discipline referrals and the sign-in sheets from IEP meetings. The sign-in sheets are a small thing that tells a clear story about who shows up. Progress reports let you line up school performance against the time-sharing schedule and see whether anything changes depending on where the child slept the night before.
Medical and related-service records
Speech therapy, occupational therapy, the pediatrician and any prescribing physician. Beyond the obvious, these records document sleep, feeding and sensory needs that a parenting plan has to accommodate. A child who needs a specific bedtime routine or cannot tolerate certain foods will show that in these notes long before anyone raises it in court.
Communication between the parents and the providers
Portal messages, emails, cancellation notices and co-parenting app logs. I am not looking for the one bad message. I am looking for the pattern over time: who the providers hear from, who responds to scheduling, who asks questions about the plan. Consistency is one of the strongest predictors of how a child with autism will do under any schedule and this is where consistency is visible.
How to request them
Three practical points. First, ask for raw data and graphs, not just summaries. A summary says the child “made progress.” A graph shows the dip in March. Second, request early. Providers routinely take thirty days and some ABA companies have to pull data out of a separate software system. Third, use the right releases. Clinical records need a HIPAA-compliant authorization and school records fall under FERPA, and a general subpoena often produces a partial file.
What I do with them
My job is to tie these records to specific provisions in the parenting plan: how transitions between homes should be structured, what routines need to be identical in both households, who should attend treatment and school meetings and what the exchange schedule should look like for this particular child. I do not speculate about what a parent is like. I describe what the record shows the child needs and whether the proposed plan meets it, in language the judge and the mediator can use.
If you have a case involving a child with autism and want help deciding what to request or what the records mean once they arrive, read more about my family law work or get in touch.