Fox News published an op-ed by NPO’s Don Hubin, Ph.D. about the results of our updated Shared Parenting Report Card:
A study just published by the National Parents Organization reveals that most states have a long way to go to improve the lives of children whose parents are living apart. The good news is that there is a path to that goal—a goal that everyone shares—that is widely agreed on and … it’s free!
National Parents Organization researchers evaluated the statutes of all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine the degree to which those laws promote the well-being of children by encouraging separated parents to share as equally as possible in rearing their children. NPO then graded the states’ statutes based on 21 factors that encourage or discourage shared parenting.
The 2019 NPO Shared Parenting Report Card contains some good news but, overall, the news is depressing. The average grade for all of the states is a disappointing ‘C-’.
More than a quarter-century of high-quality research shows that children of divorced and separated parents do best when both parents share parental responsibilities roughly equally—when children do not suddenly find themselves with one overburdened parent and one “every other weekend visitor.” In light of this research, state legislatures should be doing everything they can to encourage this equal co-parenting. It should be the presumed post-separation parenting arrangement.
Read the rest at Fox News.