My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Ohio
I have done research and found out that in the county where the shared parenting agreement was created between my boyfriend and his ex that we must file a "notice of relocation" after which they will notify the other parent and the court, or either parent can then file for a hearing to see if changes to the parenting plan are necessary. I have also determined that at this point in time we are considered the school placement parent.
We are planning to move at most an hr drive away, the farthest place is 45 miles away from the city we lived in at the time of the divorce. That's the most extreme case, but it is likely that it will still be at least an hour drive round trip. Reasoning is because we want to have a lot of land and cannot find as much as we want inside city limits. We also require that it is in a good school district.
Given the circumstances that are developing, we think it is likely that a new agreement will have to be reached, since currently the arrangement is that during the school year she drops my stepdaughter (5) off at school. We pick her up and keep her until 8 and then she sleeps at her moms, and during the non school year we have her from 8 p.m. until 5 p.m. the next day. Her mom picks her up after work and then drops her back off at 8 for me to get ready for bed. They take turns keeping her on the weekends. Based on past precedent, her mom will not agree to any arrangement that does not involve her seeing her everyday, even if it is in my step daughter's best interest, so there is a chance that a court will have to step in if we can't reach an agreement, as the mother will probably refuse to keep her side of this arrangement.
I know the court always looks for what is in the best interest of the child, but our situation is a little less clear. If one parent does NOT seem to be in a position of being able to support her daughter financially and is a less fit (though not un-fit) parent, while the other parent is more fit, but has a work schedule that would mean he is home while she is at school and at work when she is home (meaning I would be the one taking care of her during the week-we aren't married but live together, and I've been in her life since she was 3, so 2 years), what would be in the best interest of the child?
If we divided it so that we had her during the week and her mom on every weekend, then she would go to a good school, but never see her father, and would spend the week primarily with me.
If we divided it so that her mom had her during the week and us on the weekends, then she would be with her bio-mom during the week, but go to a really really bad school and her mom is less fit at parenting (puts her daughter in the middle, tells lies to her about us, lets her watch adult swim (she's 5) is unemployed by choice, has no car to get her from school and smokes week).
Or would the court divide it a different way in the best interest of the child?

