Child Custody and Schools
When a family goes through divorce or separation, children often pay the biggest price.
In nearly all cases they will continue to live with one parent or the other, but their sense of family and continuity disappears.
School-aged children can have their routines disrupted even further if the eventual custody agreement mandates that the child live with a parent who is in a different school district, even a different state.
It's important for both parents to focus primarily on the welfare of their child, causing the least disruption and ensuring the greatest stability and continuity.
In most custody cases, two kinds of custody are awarded: legal custody and physical custody.
Legal custody determines who will have decisionmaking power over the child's welfare, including issues about the child's education; these days, legal custody is usually awarded jointly to both parents.
Physical custody, on the other hand, determines where the child will live.
Physical custody, too, is often awarded jointly, such that the child will continue to spend substantial time with both parents; in some cases, the child swaps houses on a weekly basis.
However, most custody decisions continue to award physical custody to one parent or the other, awarding visitation rights to the noncustodial parent.
Regrettably, parents involved in a contentious divorce and custody procedure often lose sight of the fact that their child's welfare should come first.
In the midst of a custody battle, it sometimes happens that each parent will enroll their child in a different school district; at other times, parents will obtain conflicting court orders from different jurisdictions.
Children have been pulled out of expensive private schools in the middle of the school year because one parent or the other has stopped making tuition payments.
Such scenarios suggest that it's the parents more than the children who need further schooling.
There are some basic principles to stick to.
First, children should continue to attend whatever school they happen to be attending until the parents come to full agreement on custody, or until the court issues directions.
If the school requires tuition payments, both parents should ensure that these continue to be paid as necessary during the entire legal process; putting sufficient funds in escrow and having a trusted third party make payments is not a bad idea.
Children require consistency; they are upset by family problems such as separation and divorce, and will need the continuing support of their best friends in school -- their peers -- as well as teachers and school counselors who are aware of the situation.
Unilaterally uprooting a child from such a support network in the midst of a family crisis is the worst thing a parent can do.
If a child is not yet enrolled in a school while a custody case is ongoing, both parents need to agree, somehow, on where the child will attend school until the case has been completed.
Generally, the child should be enrolled in the school district where he or she is currently living.
If some form of joint physical custody is anticipated, the child should be enrolled in the school district where he or she will be living the majority of the time.
If one parent has already moved to another jurisdiction -- in the United States, to a different state -- then it is not at all helpful for that parent to muddy the waters by obtaining a court order from his or her new state.
Custody laws and procedures differ from state to state, and court orders issued by one state are often not recognized in another state.
This kind of renegade behavior on the part of parents is rarely in a child's best interest.
Likewise, the failure on the part of one parent to adhere to a visitation schedule (and thus cause a child to miss school), or to make an obligatory tuition payment, can be interpreted as contempt of court or even as a violation of a custodial interference law -- a felony in some jurisdictions.
Once custody has been settled and a child is enrolled in a school, both parents will routinely continue to have access to the child's school records -- regardless of whether the parents have joint legal custody or whether one parent has sole legal custody.
The school will release the records to either parent regardless, and both parents have the right to sit in on meetings with counselors or teachers regarding special education or other issues that might arise.
In some cases, joint legal custody might not be awarded by the court because the noncustodial parent is shown to be a substance abuser, prone to erratic or violent behavior, or in some other way unfit to participate in decisionmaking about the child's welfare.
The custody agreement can specifically state that the noncustodial parent not be allowed access to school records.
The school must be provided with a copy of the agreement, and it will then bar the noncustodial parent from obtaining records or otherwise participating in the child's school activities.
Mostly, managing a child's routine education during the course of a custody case is a matter of common sense.
Regardless of how much -- or how little -- you are able to communicate with your ex-spouse or ex-partner, try to communicate at least about your child's best interest with respect to education, and come to the most practical solution.
In nearly all cases they will continue to live with one parent or the other, but their sense of family and continuity disappears.
School-aged children can have their routines disrupted even further if the eventual custody agreement mandates that the child live with a parent who is in a different school district, even a different state.
It's important for both parents to focus primarily on the welfare of their child, causing the least disruption and ensuring the greatest stability and continuity.
In most custody cases, two kinds of custody are awarded: legal custody and physical custody.
Legal custody determines who will have decisionmaking power over the child's welfare, including issues about the child's education; these days, legal custody is usually awarded jointly to both parents.
Physical custody, on the other hand, determines where the child will live.
Physical custody, too, is often awarded jointly, such that the child will continue to spend substantial time with both parents; in some cases, the child swaps houses on a weekly basis.
However, most custody decisions continue to award physical custody to one parent or the other, awarding visitation rights to the noncustodial parent.
Regrettably, parents involved in a contentious divorce and custody procedure often lose sight of the fact that their child's welfare should come first.
In the midst of a custody battle, it sometimes happens that each parent will enroll their child in a different school district; at other times, parents will obtain conflicting court orders from different jurisdictions.
Children have been pulled out of expensive private schools in the middle of the school year because one parent or the other has stopped making tuition payments.
Such scenarios suggest that it's the parents more than the children who need further schooling.
There are some basic principles to stick to.
First, children should continue to attend whatever school they happen to be attending until the parents come to full agreement on custody, or until the court issues directions.
If the school requires tuition payments, both parents should ensure that these continue to be paid as necessary during the entire legal process; putting sufficient funds in escrow and having a trusted third party make payments is not a bad idea.
Children require consistency; they are upset by family problems such as separation and divorce, and will need the continuing support of their best friends in school -- their peers -- as well as teachers and school counselors who are aware of the situation.
Unilaterally uprooting a child from such a support network in the midst of a family crisis is the worst thing a parent can do.
If a child is not yet enrolled in a school while a custody case is ongoing, both parents need to agree, somehow, on where the child will attend school until the case has been completed.
Generally, the child should be enrolled in the school district where he or she is currently living.
If some form of joint physical custody is anticipated, the child should be enrolled in the school district where he or she will be living the majority of the time.
If one parent has already moved to another jurisdiction -- in the United States, to a different state -- then it is not at all helpful for that parent to muddy the waters by obtaining a court order from his or her new state.
Custody laws and procedures differ from state to state, and court orders issued by one state are often not recognized in another state.
This kind of renegade behavior on the part of parents is rarely in a child's best interest.
Likewise, the failure on the part of one parent to adhere to a visitation schedule (and thus cause a child to miss school), or to make an obligatory tuition payment, can be interpreted as contempt of court or even as a violation of a custodial interference law -- a felony in some jurisdictions.
Once custody has been settled and a child is enrolled in a school, both parents will routinely continue to have access to the child's school records -- regardless of whether the parents have joint legal custody or whether one parent has sole legal custody.
The school will release the records to either parent regardless, and both parents have the right to sit in on meetings with counselors or teachers regarding special education or other issues that might arise.
In some cases, joint legal custody might not be awarded by the court because the noncustodial parent is shown to be a substance abuser, prone to erratic or violent behavior, or in some other way unfit to participate in decisionmaking about the child's welfare.
The custody agreement can specifically state that the noncustodial parent not be allowed access to school records.
The school must be provided with a copy of the agreement, and it will then bar the noncustodial parent from obtaining records or otherwise participating in the child's school activities.
Mostly, managing a child's routine education during the course of a custody case is a matter of common sense.
Regardless of how much -- or how little -- you are able to communicate with your ex-spouse or ex-partner, try to communicate at least about your child's best interest with respect to education, and come to the most practical solution.
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