Ontario Form 35.1 is the sworn parenting affidavit you must serve and file any time your application, answer, or motion to change a final order includes a claim about decision-making responsibility, parenting time, or contact with a child. It travels with the document that contains your parenting claim, not later, and the court clerk will refuse the filing without it. You can download the form in PDF or Word format from the Ontario Court Services website.
When You Have to File It
Rule 35.1(1) of Ontario’s Family Law Rules is direct: if your court document raises a parenting claim, a completed Form 35.1 goes in at the same time.1Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules That covers a parent starting a new application, a parent responding to the other side’s parenting claim, and either party asking the court to change an existing final parenting order.
If your case involves only property division or support and no parenting claim, Form 35.1 does not apply. Those matters use different forms, such as Form 13 or 13.1 for financial statements.
Skipping the form is not a technicality the court will overlook. Rule 35.1(6) directs the clerk not to accept your document for filing when the required affidavit and attachments are missing.1Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules The case does not move until you comply.
What You Have to Swear To
Form 35.1 is organized around three things: the parenting arrangement you want, your history of caring for the child, and safety disclosures. Every statement is sworn under oath, and a judge will rely on it when deciding what serves the child’s best interests.
Your Proposed Parenting Plan
Describe the arrangement you want the court to order: who should have decision-making responsibility over major issues like health, education, religion, and significant extracurricular activities; the parenting time schedule you propose; and where the child would primarily live.2Government of Canada, Department of Justice. Parenting Arrangements After Separation or Divorce If you are seeking contact rather than parenting time, for example as a grandparent, describe the contact arrangement.
Be specific. “I want equal time” gives a judge nothing. Spell out the weekly schedule, holiday arrangements, and how transitions will be handled. If you are asking for sole decision-making responsibility, explain why shared decision-making would not work.
Your Caregiving History
Set out who has been the primary caregiver, what day-to-day arrangements have looked like, and your relationship with the child. History of care before separation is one of the statutory best-interests factors.3Ontario.ca. Children’s Law Reform Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.12 Concrete details carry the weight: who takes the child to school, who handles medical appointments, who helps with homework.
Safety Disclosures
This is where incomplete disclosure creates the most trouble. You must disclose whether you or the other party has committed family violence against a spouse, a child, or any other household member, covering physical, sexual, financial, and psychological abuse. You must also disclose relevant civil or criminal proceedings, including restraining orders, criminal charges, or conditions of bail or probation that could affect the child’s safety.
If a children’s aid society has ever been involved with your family, say so. CAS involvement triggers a second requirement: Form 35.1A, which sets out details of that involvement.1Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules Form 35.1A is kept separate from the continuing record to protect sensitive information about the child.
Attachments That Have to Go With It
Form 35.1 does not always stand alone. Depending on your circumstances, one or more of the following must be filed with it, and the clerk checks before accepting your filing.
- Form 35.1A, the child protection affidavit, if the child or any party has been involved in a child protection case or received services from a children’s aid society. It is filed alongside Form 35.1 but does not go into the continuing record.
- A police records check if you are claiming decision-making responsibility and you are not the child’s parent. It must have been obtained no more than 60 days before you start the claim. If you have requested the check but not received it, attach proof of the request and then file the actual check within 10 days of getting it.
- A copy of any request you were required to make to a children’s aid society for a report under the Children’s Law Reform Act.
If any of these apply to you and one is missing, the clerk will refuse the entire filing, not just the missing piece.1Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules
Swearing the Affidavit
Form 35.1 must be signed in front of a commissioner for taking affidavits. An unsworn affidavit is not a valid affidavit, and the court will not accept it. Commissioners include lawyers, notaries public, and people specifically appointed as commissioners in Ontario. The commissioner watches you sign, confirms your identity, and adds their signature and seal.
Read every line of the completed form before you swear it. Once sworn, the contents carry the weight of testimony. Deliberately false statements or omitted material facts can lead to a contempt finding, and the court can draw negative inferences about your credibility on every other issue in your case.
Serving and Filing
After the affidavit is sworn, you serve it on the other party before filing it with the court. Serving means delivering a copy so the other side can review your claims before any court appearance.
How to Serve
Most family court documents can go by regular service, which includes email, mail, courier, fax (up to 20 pages unless the other party consents to more), or document exchange.4Government of Ontario. Guide to Procedures in Family Court – Serving Your Documents Some documents require special service, such as personal delivery, leaving a copy with the person’s lawyer, or mailing with an acknowledgment form. Check what your specific filing requires; initial applications typically need special service.
Proof of Service
Each time you serve documents, file Form 6B, an Affidavit of Service, as proof the other party received them. Form 6B is sworn before a commissioner and filed along with the original of the documents you served.4Government of Ontario. Guide to Procedures in Family Court – Serving Your Documents
Where to File
You can file in person at the courthouse hearing your case. Electronic filing is also available. For cases in the Toronto region, online filings go through the Ontario Courts Public Portal, which replaced the former Justice Services Online platform for Toronto proceedings as of October 2025. For cases outside Toronto, the Family Submissions Online portal remains available.5Ontario.ca. File Family Court Documents Online
Filing Fees
Filing an application in family court costs $214, and filing an answer costs $171.6CanLII. Superior Court of Justice – Family Court – Fees, O Reg 417/95 Form 35.1 does not carry a separate fee; it is filed as part of the application or answer. If you cannot afford the fee, you can ask the court to waive it based on financial hardship.
Keeping the Affidavit Current
Your obligation does not end at filing. Rule 35.1(7) requires you to immediately serve and file an updated affidavit if anything in the original turns out to be incorrect or incomplete, or if your circumstances change.1Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules A new criminal charge, a move, new CAS involvement, or a change in the child’s living arrangements all trigger this duty.
For significant changes, file a new Form 35.1 (or Form 35.1A if applicable) with the corrected information. For minor corrections, you can instead file Form 14A, a general affidavit, that describes the change and explains how it affects your proposed plan for the child.1Ontario.ca. Ontario Regulation 114/99 – Family Law Rules The rule says “immediately.” Waiting for the next scheduled court date undermines your credibility and can lead a judge to question whether you are being transparent about safety.
What the Judge Is Reading For
Everything in Form 35.1 feeds the court’s analysis of the child’s best interests. Knowing what a judge weighs helps you write to those concerns rather than making general claims about being the better parent.
Under section 24 of the Children’s Law Reform Act, the court gives primary consideration to the child’s physical, emotional, and psychological safety, security, and well-being.3Ontario.ca. Children’s Law Reform Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.12 The statutory factors include:
- The child’s needs, given age and developmental stage, and the need for stability.
- The strength of the child’s relationships with each parent, siblings, grandparents, and other important people.
- Each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent and to communicate cooperatively.
- History of day-to-day care before and after separation.
- The child’s own views, weighted by age and maturity, unless they cannot be determined.
- Cultural and spiritual heritage, including Indigenous upbringing and heritage.
- The specific care plans each parent proposes going forward.
- Family violence, its nature, seriousness, frequency, and impact on the child, including any pattern of coercive or controlling behaviour.
- Any civil or criminal proceeding, order, or condition that relates to the child’s safety.
Where family violence is in play, the court also looks at whether it was directed at the child or whether the child was exposed to it, the risk of future harm, and whether an order that would require cooperation between the parties is even appropriate.3Ontario.ca. Children’s Law Reform Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.12 Address whichever factors apply to your situation with specific examples. A judge who reads that you have managed the child’s medical appointments, attended every parent-teacher meeting, and coordinated extracurriculars for the past three years learns far more than one who reads that you “always put the child first.”