Separate Parenting Updates

The Indiana Legislature has amended certain sections of the code that impact parents raising kids after a divorce or paternity determination. I’m sure this has been discussed elsewhere, but the changes are significant and I think they will catch some folks by surprise, so I want to make a note of them. They take effect July 1, 2006

 

First, SB 0039 permits the parent with physical custody to opt (no later than 14 days before school starts) to have the child enrolled in either the mother or father’s school district. The election can be made only 1 time per year, and the key is that the school cannot charge tuition. This has been a big issue for many families, so make sure you don’t miss the deadline.

 

Second, SB 0040 requires a parent with custody to give the other parent an intent to move at least 90 days prior to relocating the child’s residence out of state, or more than 100 miles from the child’s current county of residence. Currently, the law required notice, but did not specify a time frame, so the custodian could be long gone by the time the parent with visitation right found anything out (I once had a client who went to pick up his kids for a weekend visit, only to find the mother’s house vacant - she had moved herself and the kids several hundred miles away.  The non-custodial parent has 60 days after getting the notice to file a request for an order from the court temporarily stopping the relocation. At a hearing, the burden is on the custodial parent to show that the relocation is for “legitimate” reasons. This provision greatly increases the protection of a non-custodial parent’s access, but I would not be surprised if the validity of the law is challenged as it creates a pretty strong limit on the custodial parent’s right to roam about the country at will (I think there is something in the Bill of Rights about that). We’ll see.