Commission on Indiana Child Support and Parenting Time laws and guidelines

After spending all day Friday in a meeting with the Domestic Relations Committee of the Indiana Supreme Court and then an InCRA board meeting followed by the Citizen Journalism Boot Camp, hosted by the Indiana Coalition for Open Government, all day Saturday I am ready to get the discussion going on this commission.


The purpose of the Commission on Indiana Child Support and Parenting Time laws and guidelines was established for the purpose of creating better laws and policies in the State of Indiana related to child custody and support. Going through the legislative process in this last session of the Indiana General Assembly convinced me that the best way to write law is not to hold a hearing two weeks before the session is to end and have problems or concerns with the proposed law first raised then.

Anyone who followed Senate Bill 0059, Grandparent Visitation Bill, knows exactly what I am talking about. Concerns were raised, amendments were hurriedly crafted and additional hearings were held. It also happened with SB0178, Paternity Affidavit Amendment, in which the bill ultimately went to a Conference Committee to reconcile language in the amendments before it ultimately passed with unanimous support.

To those of you who have already agreed to participate in this group through the e-mail discussion I appreciate that you will be taking time from your busy schedule to provide input and assist in the law and rule making process. If you are a stakeholder such as a mental health professional, judge [current or former] or juvenile social worker and would like to be added to the discussion group please contact me with your request.

If you are an interested person who simply wants to get involved in the discussion but is not a regular advisor to the policy writers or lawmakers then you may post to our subject specific discussions on FaceBook. You may find that you get invited to participate in the policy and law writing process by being on the Commission.

The 2010 session of the Indiana General Assembly has not been over long and we are now ready to take up the challenge of making Indiana a more child friendly state. So, I hope you are ready to read the relevant laws and rules and get your thoughts on them put to paper so to say.

Our immediate concern will be the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines [IPTG] because of timeliness. The Domestic Relations Committee [DRC] of the Judicial Conference of Indiana met on Friday 19 March 2010 to establish the process by which public input would be taken and revisions made to the IPTG. You may read more about that here.

A public hearing will be held on 21 May 2010 from 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon in the Indiana Supreme Court chambers. Written comments are being taken now through the time of the public hearing.

Please take the time to review the IPTG and make any comments to the group for discussion. One area that the DRC has expressed concern over is that the Guidelines are being used as a standard and not as a minimum time that a child should be given the opportunity to interact with a non-custodial parent [NCP].

Two other areas that appear to cause some confusion or additional litigation are Opportunities for Additional Parenting Time, commonly referred to as first-right-of-refusal, and regular parenting time following holiday time where it would result in the NCP not having the child(ren) for three consecutive weekends.

I propose that Opportunities for Additional Parenting Time are triggered when a "household" family member is unable to provide care for the child. My reasoning is that if the child must be transported elsewhere [grandparents house] or someone has to come to the house then those people are acting as a sitter not a household member engaging in a regular course of conduct who may also care for the child in place of the parent.

There are numerous other changes that I have already prepared but I will let you start submitting your ideas and comments first.

The next project we have been asked to debate is a Shared Parenting bill that was introduced as Senate Bill 560 in 2009 but was never heard in committee. Please provide comment on what you support and oppose in this bill. There is substantial support in the Indiana General Assembly for a presumption that both parents who provided and cared for the child(ren) prior to divorce will continue to do so. Also, that to restrict or deny a child access to a parent a judge must articulate specific findings as to why that access should be restricted.

Any topic or specific proposal that you wish to discuss can be submitted to the group for discussion. Please keep in mind that messages are not attributed to the specific author and that BCC is used for group e-mails.

The more voices that we can bring to this discussion the better laws and policies we will create for the children in Indiana and the nation as we become an innovator in family law.


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©2010 Stuart Showalter, LLC. Permission is granted to all non-commercial entities to reproduce this article in it's entirety with credit given.