Across Wisconsin, court-ordered parenting time is often violated with little meaningful enforcement. When one parent repeatedly interferes with custody or placement orders, the consequences are typically limited to civil disputes that can take months or years to resolve. Meanwhile, children lose time with one of their parents—time that can never truly be replaced.

 

Under current Wisconsin law, interference with child custody is only clearly treated as a felony in limited circumstances, such as when a child is taken out of state or concealed. This narrow definition fails to address a common reality: repeated in-state violations where a parent simply refuses to follow a court-ordered placement schedule. These violations can slowly erode the child’s relationship with the other parent while the legal system struggles to respond. 

 

At the same time, when parenting time is denied due to allegations or investigations that ultimately find no abuse or neglect, Wisconsin law does not require that the lost time be restored. Even when a parent is cleared of wrongdoing, the time taken from the parent-child relationship is often gone forever. 

 

These gaps in the law create two serious problems:

• Repeated violations of court-ordered placement can occur with minimal consequences.
• Parents who lose time with their children due to unsubstantiated allegations have no guaranteed way to recover that lost time.

 

The proposed reforms address both issues.

 

The Wisconsin 3 Strikes Law would establish clear consequences for repeated interference with custody orders, escalating penalties for those who repeatedly violate court-ordered placement. 

 

The Time Taken Time Back Act would require courts to restore parenting time when access to a child was wrongfully denied during investigations that did not result in findings of abuse or neglect. 

 

Together, these reforms aim to strengthen accountability, protect the parent-child relationship, and ensure that court orders regarding children are treated with the seriousness they deserve.

 

Children deserve consistent relationships with both parents.
Court orders should mean something.
And when parenting time is wrongfully taken, the law should provide a way to give that time back.