Ohio family courts compound damage of divorce
“NPO Ohio Parenting Time Report” shows that very few Ohio courts are doing this.
Ohio law requires each domestic-relations court to formulate and publish parenting-time guidelines that provide a schedule for the division of the children’s time between the parents. If these guidelines were grounded on research about child well-being, they would provide the children with substantially equal time with each of their fit parents. That’s what the research indicates is almost always best for children of all ages, even when parents have significant (nonviolent) conflict.
Sadly, most court guidelines fall far short of this ideal.
Of Ohio’s 88 counties, 64 have parenting-time guidelines that allow children to spend only two overnights and 60 hours or fewer in a two-week period with one of their fit parents.
Some of these have schedules that prevent the children from being in the care of one of their parents for 12 consecutive days during that two-week period.
None of these counties has parenting guidelines that allow the children to be in the care of their nonresidential parent on a school night. This takes one fit parent out of a true parentchild role at a time when it is more important than ever for children to be reassured that both parents are fully engaged in their lives — that both parents are doing the hands-on, day-to-day tasks of raising them.
There were bright spots, too, but only a few.
Just three Ohio counties (Ashtabula, Jefferson and Tuscarawas) have adopted guidelines that provide children with equal or almost equal time with each of their fit parents.
The parenting-time guidelines of most Ohio counties are not only sadly behind the times, they lead to results that are capricious and bizarre. For example, children whose parents divorce in Sandyville (Tuscarawas County) will presumptively be in the care of each of their parents for seven overnights and 168 hours in a two-week period. Identical children in an identical family just 4 miles away in Magnolia (Carroll County) will presumptively be in the care of one of their parents for just two overnights and 48 hours in the same period — and those children will go 12 days straight without seeing that parent.
What can be done about the disparity in the way our children are treated by Ohio courts?
Local parenting-time rules are set by each county court. Change should begin there. Each county court of common pleas should review its guidelines. These rules should not be based on bias and tradition but on the best scientific research on child well-being. The Ohio Supreme Court should mandate such a county-level review and impose guidance that ensures a serious review.
What about the legislature?
Currently, parenting-time guidelines are considered a matter for the courts, not the legislature. This is in striking contrast to child support, where state law sets presumptive levels of support. Parenting time is at least as important to child well-being as is financial child support. The legislature should consider whether it has a duty to protect Ohio children from being deprived of a full parent-child relation with one of their parents. It could do this by setting a presumptive minimum of parenting time with each parent.
At a minimum, the legislature could require not only that local courts establish parenting-time guidelines, but that these guidelines be reviewed regularly and be based on the best research on child well-being.
Under the current laws and court rules, many courts are failing our children. Our children deserve better.