Notice: This is part two of a two-part series on how school officials can address the child custody issues they could encounter on campus. Part 1 covered custody basics, and part 2 covers how these issues apply in cases where child abuse and/or domestic violence are suspected. This article contains educational information, not legal advice. Check with an attorney for case-specific policies and procedures and state laws. Read part 1.
School Officials Must Report Suspected Child Abuse
The mission of school officials is to protect the children and staff while avoiding personal and district liability. A related objective is to prevent violence at the school resulting from child custody issues. For example, one parent might attack the other parent or a staff member in the heat of a custody or parenting time dispute. Preventing violence is accomplished by developing and then following school policies, and obtaining and obeying court orders.
School officials should not second guess or substitute their judgment for that of the court. If a school official believes a child is in danger, the official should report that belief and supporting facts to child protective services and law enforcement officials. School resource officers (SROs) are great sources of guidance in these matters.
Related Article: The Impact of Child Custody Issues on School Safety (Part 1)
School officials have an affirmative duty under the law of most states to report suspicion of physical or sexual abuse or neglect. Child protective services caseworkers and law enforcement officers have power and authority to act to prevent harm to children and remove them from dangerous situations in spite of court orders. School officials generally do not have that power or authority.
Campus administrators do generally have immunity from liability for good faith reporting of suspected abuse or neglect, and may incur civil and criminal liability for failure to report. Reporting is mandatory, not optional. Failure to report abuse and neglect can result in increased exposure to civil liability as well as harm to a child.
A custodial parent has the authority to prevent the non-custodial parent or third persons from visiting the child at school, picking up the child from school and being on the emergency contact list.
Custody Issues Can Get Tricky When Other States, Countries Are Involved
With today’s mobile society, school staff will often be presented with written documentation and court orders from another state or county. The doctrine of Full Faith and Credit requires one state to accept and enforce orders issued by another state. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act and the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act define a child’s home state as the state in which the child has resided for the past six months. The child’s home state retains jurisdiction over the child. This prevents a non-custodial parent from fleeing to another state to get a new custody order.
Custody issues involving a parent who is not in the country can be particularly challenging.
Related Article: How Schools Should Protect Students from Child Custody Disputes
For example, on January 22, 2013 the Evansville Courier and Press reported a 12 year old girl, 10 year old boy and 8 year old girl were reunited with their custodial father who had not seen them since June 2008 when his then wife took the three children to Argentina for a three week vacation. An arrest warrant remains active for the wife issued from Lafayette, Ind. She is believed to be in Argentina.
The father is a native of Argentina and wife is an American citizen raised in Argentina. Married in Argentina in 1999, they moved to Lafayette in 2003. The father became a naturalized citizen in 2008 and also was awarded full custody in a 2008 Indiana divorce. This is an international parental child abduction case and the International Criminal Police organization or INTERPOL is involved. The wife had an attorney in the divorce who said the father was violent toward the wife. The wife filed a parallel case in Buenos Aries to determine if father’s custody order was valid. The Tippecanoe County, Ind., judge determined the wife violated the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspect of Child Abduction, a treaty to facilitate determining if children have been wrongfully removed from their “country of habitual residence”.
The trial court in Buenos Aries Argentina ruled for wife, but the appellate court reversed the trial court decision in September 2012 and the Argentina Supreme Court agreed, giving father leverage to go to Argentina and bring his children home.
Domestic Abuse Cases Often Require Some Confidentiality
The Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) and laws in most states grant both parents equal access to a child’s school records. Both parents may request PIN numbers for the computer system and sign up to receive robo calls and text notifications. Generally the non-custodial parent is entitled to the same records to which the custodial parent is entitled.
Protecting the safety of the child and the custodial parent is vital. An abusive non-custodial parent might request school records in an attempt to find an address or place of employment for an abused parent or child. The majority of the school records should be released to the non-custodian. However, identifying and locating information such as the school name, address of parent or child, place of employment of the abused parent or child, and telephone number of parent and child should generally not be released to abusers. Records should be redacted by marking out with permanent black marker any information that could be used to locate a parent and child who are victims of abuse.
Related Article: Domestic Violence on Campus: Kansas Man Shoots Wife at School After Dropping Children Off
Many states now require both parents to provide written notice to the court and to each other of any change in residential address or telephone number. In cases of domestic violence, the victim can usually provide the information to the court and ask that the information be sealed and kept confidential from the other parent.
Most county prosecutor offices or district attorneys that prosecute criminal cases also have a civil division often called the IV-D office, which establishes paternity for parents, and obtains and enforces child support orders. The IV-D office, local bar association, legal aid or legal services office, school district attorney, state department of education and state school board association are all sources of information on this complex and ever changing subject.
Keep Records of Your Activities Relating to Custody Cases
Taking your time, getting the current written documentation or court orders, asking questions and making logical common sense decisions should be your goals.
In making decisions related to the custody and parenting time of minor children, school staff must document what steps are taken as they are taken. Write down the facts, the names and contact information of people consulted, the time and date, and keep copies of necessary paperwork. This record will support the actions taken if litigation is threatened or filed.
Schools generally have no duty to know the contents of written documentation and court orders that are not in their possession. But asking for the written documentation and court orders should be standard practice, and recording and understanding the contents of the written documentation and court orders school staff have on file is vital.
Gerald Eugene Summers is a Crisis Intervention Team member, School Safety/Healthy Children Instructor, and an Advanced School Specialist in Indiana. He is President and CEO of Integrity Security Protection LLC, a safety and security consulting and training firm in Evansville Indiana.
Sue Ann Hartig was Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Evansville Inc. for over 26 years, the first female judicial officer in Vanderburgh County, and City Attorney for the City of Evansville. Hartig is Vice President and CFO of Integrity Security Protection, LLC, a safety and security consulting and training firm in Evansville, Indiana.
Notice: This article contains educational information, not legal advice. Check with an attorney for case-specific policies and procedures and state laws. The views expressed by guest bloggers and contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Campus Safety. This article was originally published in 2014, but the recommendations still apply.