Parents Forever: Legal Issues and the Role of Mediation in Divorce Educator Guide

Custody, Visitation, Maintenance, and Child Support

Topic

Custody, visitation, maintenance, and child support

Purpose

To acquaint parents with the meanings of these terms and how they might apply to their situation

Instructions

1. Review background.
2. Refer parents to Parent Handbook, "Custody."
3. Review briefly with parents and field questions as necessary.
4. Discuss allowing community professionals to answer parents' questions-taking into consideration the laws in your area.

Background

Child custody studies

Suggested presenters for this topic include local family law attorneys, guardians ad litem, judges, or knowledgeable human services staff. Presenters need to cover questions such as:

• When and how are custody studies conducted?
• How are decisions about child custody made?
• What input can the children have, and how is their input used?
• Can the children choose where they want to live?

Child support

Suggested presenters of material on child support decisions-including guidelines and process-may comprise county child support officers; experts from your area's Child Support office, a representative from the Department of Human Services; or a video if available.

Presenters for this session are encouraged to thoroughly review (ideally, to attend) the curriculum session Money Issues in Divorce. That session lays the groundwork for parents to understand the actual costs of raising children, which will better prepare people to discuss child support issues.

Suggested questions to answer during this portion of the session include:

• Why is child support important? (refer to "Cost of Raising Children" section of Money Issues in Divorce)
• Who pays child support?
• How will my children benefit if I pay child support to the other parent?
• How is child support calculated?
• How is child support paid? (Parents often do not realize that they pay it to the Human Services Department, which then pays it to the other parent.)

Income maintenance programs

Suggested presenters for this topic include human services financial workers from your county.

Suggested questions to answer during this portion of the session include:

• What kinds of income maintenance programs are available if people need them?
  • Food Stamps
  • AFDC
  • Medical Assistance
  • Fuel Assistance
  • Other
• How do people access these programs?

Custody

There are four types of custody by legal definition: legal custody, joint legal custody, physical custody, and joint physical custody.

Legal custody is the right to determine your children's upbringing, including education, health care, and religious training.

Joint legal custody means that both parents must cooperate and agree on important decisions about the children.

Physical custody is the routine daily care, control, and residence of the children. One of the factors the courts consider when looking at sole custody is whether it would hurt the children if one parent alone had custody. Another factor the courts consider is whether domestic abuse has taken place and if so, its impact on the children.

Joint physical custody depends on the parents' demonstrated ability to cooperate and to work out problems. In this custody, the children's living arrangements and routine daily decisions about them are shared equally between parents.

Whether decided by the parents together or ordered by the courts, once decided, custody can be difficult to reverse. Stability for children is a key goal of the courts, and they rarely order a change of custody later. Courts rarely split up siblings for the same reason-stability for children and the strongest family ties possible in a given situation. Uprooting children and changing their homes and routines several years after the divorce is unlikely without very strong cause. Therefore, consider carefully what kind of custody you want, for now as well as for the future.

About the Parents Forever Program

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