Ohio Supreme Court issues updated guide for child custody issues

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(The Center Square) – It's not every day state Supreme courts dispense parenting advice, but the Ohio Supreme Court is doing just that with an updated guide to help parents who are separated become better parents.

"The guide contains practical tools, including sample parenting time schedules that can be adapted to fit a family’s unique circumstances," the court said in a statement this week. "It also offers specific information on how to address special situations that can create challenges for separated parents, such as long-distance parenting and the potential relocation of a parent."

The primary purpose of the guide is to help parents reduce conflicts and reach agreements faster, “focusing on the best interests of their children,” the court said.

The publication is free and available to the public online.

“Raising children can be challenging even under the best of circumstances,” the guide says in its introduction. “When parents live in separate homes, the challenges are greater because relationships become more complicated. Sometimes parents disagree about how much time children should spend with each parent.”

Maintaining healthy relationships between children and both parents after divorce is “of greatest importance” the guide says.

“Adult children of divorce describe the loss of contact with a parent and conflict between their parents as the most painful parts of divorce or parental separation,” it states.

The guide includes sample schedules for dividing time between parents and advice on challenges such as long-distance parenting when one parent moves away.

It warns, however, that if a domestic violence protective order is in place, parents should get the court’s permission before making changes in parenting schedules.

“Each child and each family are unique,” the guide says. “There is no ‘standard’ parenting schedule nor minimum or maximum amount of parenting time for either parent that fits all families,” it says. “Decisions about parenting time depend on many things, particularly the age of the child, as well as such factors as geographic proximity of the parents,

history of child abuse or domestic violence, substance use, etc.”

The guide can also be used by attorneys, mental health professionals and others in resolving family disputes, the court said.

“Courts prefer that parents reach agreements about parenting time together,” the guide says. “Parents are generally in a better position than the courts to determine what works best for themselves and their children and are more likely to follow a schedule they

created. This hopefully leads to greater parental cooperation as their children grow up and creates a less stressful environment for children.”

The guide was originally drafted in 2012 and has been updated with the help of an advisory committee of professionals, most recently last month. It was modeled after a similar guide in Arizona.