There are three types of child custody in California: joint, legal, and physical. As noted, legal custody involves making important decisions on behalf of the child including school decisions, religious decisions, health decisions. If parents have joint legal custody, they are both entitled to make important decisions for the child. Physical custody refers to where the child lives. If parents have joint physical custody, then the child splits his or her time more or less equally between the parents. Joint physical custody rarely means a true 50/50 split; it can be difficult to make joint physical custody work unless the parents get along well and live in close proximity to one another.