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Giving parents equal parenting time by law



 
 
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Old February 28th 09, 01:10 PM posted to alt.child-support
Dusty
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Default Giving parents equal parenting time by law



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...arrington.html
Giving parents equal parenting time by law
Washington state is now an official shared parenting state for families
impacted by parental separation, writes guest columnist Bill Harrington.
Time for the Washington Legislature to enact a law that mandates standard
parenting plans that envision significant time for each parent.

By Bill Harrington

For the third time in 22 years, Washington state is leading the nation in
family law reform. This time, the report is called the Residential Time
Summary Report prepared by the state Office of the Administrator for the
Courts. This is a first-in-the-nation compilation of post-divorce breakdown
of parenting time for children, mothers and fathers. The numbers are
collected case-by-case and county-by-county.

Amazingly, 46 percent of children of divorce, statewide, are ordered to
spend a minimum of 35 percent parenting time with their biological fathers.
Parenting time is broken down by large percentages, and meaningful shared
parenting starts in the range of 30-35 percent. This is about 300 percent
better results than anyone could have expected from the time the Parenting
Act was first approved. If there ever was any doubt, Washington state is now
an official shared-parenting state for families impacted by parental
separation.

In 1987, Washington required divorcing parents to detail parenting schedules
in Parenting Plan documents that are filed with the court. Over 30 states
have adopted this family law reform. Again, in 1991, Washington Department
of Social and Health Services first developed and used the Paternity
Affidavit for unwed, never-married, fathers. Staffers were pleasantly
shocked and surprised with how forthcoming fathers were to provide financial
information used to help create child-support orders.

However, the question has always been placed - how much post-divorce
parenting time are children of divorce actually spending with their male
parents? Now we see some actual results statewide and county-by-county.

The King County and Pierce County numbers are higher than the statewide
average at 50 percent with Snohomish close by at 49 percent. The two highest
counties are Whatcom at 66 percent and Skagit at 59 percent. Yakima County
comes in the lowest at 28 percent.

The summary report and study was advocated for by fathers' organizations and
shared-parenting advocates as a way of documenting why an official
shared-parenting law is needed in Washington. Sen. Jim Kastama introduced
Senate Bill 5342 addressing this issue but it has not moved out of
committee.

The 46 percent is a great number. However, there are probably another 30
percent where the fathers and some mothers arbitrarily are restricted to the
typical every-other-weekend. In these cases, the fathers and mothers with
limited schedules actually feel more like aunts and uncles than meaningfully
involved parents. The children are the biggest losers. The new law is needed
for these other parents to avoid decisions that are strictly perceived
winners and losers.

The report statistic that rings the loudest and truest is that 93 percent of
the final decisions are by agreement of the parents. This means that good
mothers and fathers are operating with one reality most in mind: These
children had two involved parents before separation and this should be the
end result as well. These good parents are sending society and our
courthouse officials a loud message.

Unfortunately, our elected superior-court judges, appointed court
commissioners and family law lawyers seem stuck in 1987. This is the time
before the positive and encouraging language of the Parenting Act was
approved and the Tender Years Doctrine was still operational.

Children of divorce are our most fragile social statistics: over 70 percent
of high-school dropouts and pregnant teen girls come from fatherless homes
as well as the 80-85 percent of male teens in juvenile justice centers and
more than 90 percent of men in prison, all from fatherless homes. Society
has paid a huge price to keep fathers away from their children. Now we see
good dads fighting to stay involved and our children are better off for this
effort.

The time has come for children of divorce to be guaranteed continuing
parental involvement such as the children in the above numbers coming from
homes where both parents are legally fit. It is time to stop divorcing
children from one of their parents, most often the father. We can do better.

Bill Harrington from Pierce County was a commissioner with the US Commission
on Child and Family Welfare.

 




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