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The Professor Nedley Series

A Possible Policy On School Selection

Who Should Make the Choice of Schools or Anything Else

An Opinion

December 1, 2006

                This article is strictly an opinion.  Why should the court system be making intimate family decisions such as choosing the kids school or orthodontist or what have you.  Maybe it's time the court self-limited its jurisdiction and got out of the family raising business.  Here's how - it's simple.

There are several possible permutations on school disputes arising between two non-consenting parents.

a.       Two public schools

b.       Private vs. public school

c.       Parochial school vs. non-parochial or public school

d.       Dad’s District vs. Mom’s District

e.       The Orthodontist

 Probably, the first question is should the court really be making these types of decisions as “in loco parentis”.  It is understandable that we must decide the bigger issue such as custody, visitation and protection of the children, but when we get down into the nitty gritty of deciding how to raise the children we may be going to far into other peoples lives.

Obviously, the question then becomes – if not us, who?  The easy answer is that at the very first go around when an issue of this nature arises we designate one or the other of the parents to make those decisions unilaterally from that date forward.  Perhaps there should be fair warning given in some manner at the outset of litigation over the children that the court cannot or will not make those types of decisions and that the result of their failure to communicate in even the most basic way will result in one of them losing "control" to the other person.

What other decisions fall into this category?  One that comes to mind is the choice of physicians or dentists or orthodontists or hairdresser or whatever.  We are not qualified and usually the evidence presented is totally inadequate for anyone to make such a decision.  Why not simply designate the parent who’s responsible or whoever is paying the bill or whoever the kid likes the best or whoever the counselor recommends to make all such selections.     

Why on earth should we run these through Family Court Services time after time?, Why then should they be on a calendar time after time with the parties spending  money on lawyers fees all to do a simple act that we have no business or reason to do in the first place.

It's time for a change.  The judge has that power right now to do exactly what the Professor is suggesting.  Do it!