Category: NPO in the media

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Some changes to child custody agreements will take place later this month as one of the less controversial bills from the 2016 legislative session becomes law.

HB 1550 will change shared custody agreements to encourage more shared parenting after a divorce and takes effect Aug. 28.

“Children need and benefit from having both parents actively involved in their lives,” said Rep. Kathryn Swan, R-Cape Girardeau, a supporter of the bill. “The shared parenting bill is a child-centered bill. It prohibits courts from adopting a cookie-cutter default custody order or plan.”

Under the new law, the court must consider relevant factors and enter written findings of fact and conclusions of law. It also prohibits a court from presuming that one parent, based solely on his or her sex, is more qualified than the other parent to act as custodian for the child.

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National Parents Organization (NPO) congratulates the Missouri legislature and Gov. Jay Nixon for acting in the best interest of children by signing the state’s bill promoting shared parenting into law. Previously known as HB 1550, the law “creates a more equalized approach to child custody and visitation,” according to the Governor’s office. The change, which takes effect Aug. 28, is based on the overwhelming amount of research showing shared parenting, or 50/50 custody, after divorce is most beneficial for children’s health and wellbeing, as well as parental and gender equality.

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From birth, we are wired to seek out our parents’ voices, smells, sounds and even their very presences. National Parents Day, annually celebrated in the United States on the fourth Sunday in July and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, recognizes this unique and important relationship between children and their parents. In fact, the day was specifically established for “recognizing, uplifting, and supporting the role of parents in the rearing of children.”

Even reading straight from the legislation that created National Parents Day, we can see that our country’s leadership recognizes the importance of parents in children’s lives, specifically calling out our nation’s “struggles with effects of family breakdown, youth violence and a host of other critical problems.” This intrinsic need does not diminish with time – it is part of us, as human beings, to want to know both of our parents.

Therefore, it is especially sad (and surprising) to know that 86 percent of children in divorced families live primarily with one parent, with the other parent being relegated to the status of “visitor” with a cookie-cutter amount of “visitation” assigned to them. In very rare instances, it might be appropriate to limit the amount of time children see one parent; however, in the vast majority of families, both parents are “fit” caregivers, and children overwhelmingly want to maintain a relationship with both parents.

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The stresses of a divorce or separation are already physically, emotionally and psychologically hard for any parent placed under that circumstance. But in these cases, the most affected by the trauma of a failed marriage and broken family life are the children hence, several organizations are promoting shared parenting to stop the trauma brought by parental alienation.

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Missouri is one signature away from mandating shared parenting, and it would join a growing list of states looking to equalize custody for divorced parents.

Missouri’s proposed legislation pushes judges to order shared parent custody arrangements and requires courts to disclose the reasoning behind any other arrangement ruled by the judge. The bill also creates parental outlines for joint custody agreements and mandates that family courts can’t assume a parent is more qualified than the other parent based on gender.

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“When one party — and it’s usually the mother — knows if she doesn’t agree to 50/50 that she will get the bulk of the parenting time, what is to bring her to the table?” Reutzel said. “That is our system, and I’m not blaming anybody but the system.”

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The legislation passed unanimously in the Senate and only received two dissenting votes in the House. Linda Reutzel, a member of the National Parents Organization of Missouri, said the bipartisan support shows the overwhelming need for this bill to become law.

“It’s a mandate from our legislators telling judges and lawyers that our family court is not doing what is in the best interest of the children,” she said. “Children need and want equal access to both fit and willing parents.”

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When you are engrossed in a cellphone conversation while driving, you sometimes fail to see things that are right in front of your eyes – even big things, like trucks.

Today, single fathers are noticed very little even though they are big – about 25 to 35 percent of all fathers are non-custodial, or single, dads, and a tiny percentage are sole-custody parents. Even on Father’s Day, we typically imagine the standard two-parent family. Here are three things about the single dad “truck” we need to know if we want a better life for all our children.

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Here is a story just in time for Father’s Day that confirms the old adage that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

A recent Boston Globe article “Hillary Clinton Stands Up for Man in Child Custody Case”describes a 1978 custody case tried by Hillary Clinton in tiny Rison, Arkansas. It illustrates the political and monetary corruption of the family courts, corruption that persists to this day.

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A Fatherless Day rally will be held today at the Missouri capitol building. 

The National Parents Organization invited Governor Jay Nixon to sign Missouri’s shared parenting legislation at the annual rally. 

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