Deployment and Time-Sharing: How Florida Protects Servicemember Parents

By Joshua C. Miller, Esq. · Green Bench Law, PLLC · Informational only — not legal advice

For a military parent, few fears cut deeper than this one: "If I deploy, will I lose time with my kids — permanently?" Florida answered that question with a specific statute, section 61.13002, that protects servicemembers' parental rights during activation, deployment, and temporary duty. If you serve, or you co-parent with someone who does, this is the framework your case lives in.

Deployment can't permanently cost you your time-sharing

The core protection: a parent's activation, deployment, or temporary assignment — and any temporary arrangement made because of it — cannot be the sole basis for permanently modifying an established parenting plan. Courts may enter temporary modifications to deal with the practical reality that a deployed parent can't exercise weekday exchanges from overseas, but when the servicemember returns, the prior plan is the baseline they come home to.

Your time-sharing doesn't have to sit empty

Florida law allows a deploying parent to ask the court to designate a family member, stepparent, or relative of the child to exercise time-sharing on the servicemember's behalf during the deployment — keeping the child connected to that side of the family. The designation must be in the child's best interests, and it ends when the deployment does. For a child, weekends with grandma during dad's deployment is often vastly better than six months of silence from half the family tree.

Speed matters — and the statute knows it

Military timelines don't wait for crowded dockets. The statute contemplates expedited hearings when deployment is imminent, and permits servicemembers to present testimony and evidence by electronic means — phone, video, deposition — when duty prevents personal appearance. If you have orders in hand and a hearing you can't attend, tell your lawyer immediately; accommodations exist, but they must be requested.

The SCRA backstop

Layered over Florida law is the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. When military duty materially affects a servicemember's ability to participate in civil litigation — including family cases — the SCRA provides for a stay of proceedings (an initial stay of at least 90 days on proper application, with possible extensions) and protections against default judgments. The SCRA is a shield, not a sword: courts apply it to ensure fair participation, not to let a parent stall a case indefinitely, and using it strategically requires care.

Build the deployment into the parenting plan — now

The best time to handle deployment is before it happens, in the parenting plan itself:

• A deployment clause: automatic temporary schedule adjustments triggered by orders, so nobody has to race to court.
• Designation language: pre-agreeing who may exercise time-sharing in the servicemember's absence.
• Virtual contact: scheduled video calls across time zones, with both parents obligated to facilitate.
• Make-up time: how missed time-sharing is restored after return.
• PCS planning: how relocation under military orders will be handled, including Florida's relocation statute and UCCJEA jurisdiction if the move crosses state lines.

A parenting plan drafted by someone who has lived the ops tempo reads differently than one drafted from a template. Courts notice — and so do co-parents deciding whether to fight or sign.