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Hello all,

About 6 months ago, I was awarding primary custody of my daughter, after her mother had removed herself from her life for over 8 months.  At the current point in time, my daughter, has not seen her mother well over a year, with 1 exception- she saw her in a walmart 3 months ago.  The mother recently filed for custody citing my daughters academic performance as reasoning, my daughters grades have been slipping, while not outright failing everything, her grades have been lower than normal.  For lack of making this lengthy, the actions of the teacher have contributed to this drop, the teacher has been frequently absent, and not grading the entirety of the coursework that my daughter completes, and loses her work as well.  My daughter isn't the only child having trouble in this teachers class, and not the only child in her grade having performance problems.  The school that she attends was picked and registered by her mother during the a time when we shared custody, and my daughter lived with her half of the week, and the school has always not been accredited the entire time.  The mother has two other children that were going to the same school, but transferred them before the current school year, leaving my daughter at the bad school, all of this before the change in custody occurred.  Given that the change in custody happened in the middle of the school year, I didn't move her to school in my district, as I live in another city than where she goes to school, and her school counselor and myself felt it would be too traumatic to change her to another school mid year given the custody and cps dram that she recently experienced.  My daughter is in fifth grade, and would be changing to middle school the following year, I figured that should be when she should experience that change, in school and environment. My daughters home environment is great, as there is a strong support system, healthy household, and she does well in her extra curricular activities, which her mother has no involvement, voluntarily.  My concern, is if her academic performance is enough to perform a change, by itself.

Hello All,

So I made a few post about custody issues some months ago.  The give a quick breakdown, my childs mother had abandoned him for a period over 8 moths before showing up to court.  I was awarded Primary physical custody and Joint legal custody for her actions.  My questions now deal with child support, as I am still paying child support from the prior order.  The DCSE stated that it will take two months, to completely close the case, and I assume, remove the wage withholding.  In the meantime, I have a court date scheduled with the court to terminate the child support.  My first question is whether the court will only hear the case about the termination of the current order, or whether an adjustment to her paying child support can occur.  My impression is currently that I will have to file a separate case to take out child support on her.  My second question, is whether I will be able to be compensated for the child support paid effective of the date of the change in custody?  Im fine with paying the child support currently, as long as I am able to get it back.  I cant take care of my child with it, if I do not have it.  The third question is whether I can be compensated for the 8 months of child support that I paid where the mother was absent?  This is a bit of a stretch, and I do not believe I will be able to, but if there is a way, I would appreciate knowing.  Any insight would be appreciated.  Thank you!

As ive listed in some earlier posted, I have a child whose mother has pretty much abandoned him this point, for the past several months to be exact, with no contact or support, and I will be filing for full custody this week or next week.  Ive consulted with my attorney, and he informed me to file a motion to amend custody, but my concern is how to keep the mother at bay after filing?  I have no doubt that she will try to enter the picture again after being served, and given the time that some courts take to go into deliberation, I don't want it to seem as if she is all of a sudden, super mom, due to the fact that the court may not hear the case immediately.  I am especially concerned about the possibility of her picking him up from school , and taking off. She has already moved twice, without notification to myself or the court, and I have no confidence in that she wouldn't try once she's aware of what's in store, as well as the effect it would have on my son with her showing up after all of this time.  He doesn't adjust to change well, and my mother and I have just got him to the point where he is pretty stable.  Any suggestions would be welcomed.  Thanks in advance

I appreciate your assistance.  My only concern with that is that he doesn't know the children in my area too well, if there are that many.  I stay in a neighborhood that is predominantly elderly people, and their grandchildren aren't present too much for him to meet.  He definitely has playmate in my generalize area, as he occasionally spends time with my friends children who live in my general area.  Most of his friends are by way of my parents residence, which is 5 minutes down the street from her current school.  I wouldn't have a problem moving him to a school I my zone, but because he does have friends at that school from that area, I am torn whether there is another option.  I remember reading about tuition if a parent moves, before.  This has actually happen once before when he was in kindergarten, and they allowed him to stay at the school, but I am not aware of the details why.  I do wish to enroll him in extracurricular activities, which is burdened by the current custody order, so that makes sense.  I guess where I am getting at, is if I do have to wait until the second half of school to move him, do I still use that as reasoning for the emergency custody, or do I stick with the no contact and in my primary care for the past six months as the main reason?  I contacted the school district to see how the enrollment situation will work, I am just awaiting an answer from them.  Virginia has a law that indicates child abandonment after 30 days of no contact/support, do you believe it would be more feasible to pursue it in that manner, and just request full custody as result?  Thank you in advance, any help is appreciated

The last custody determination was done over 4 years ago, which details the shared physical and legal custody, and times frames.  My son was granted to be with me from Friday evenings, until Tuesday mornings every week.  CPS is not currently involved, the case worker informed me to contact her if any of the problems reported persisted, but my son hasn't been with his mother for a problem to occur, one of the reasons why I believe she has stepped out of the picture.  CPS didn't make any changes to custody, Im still waiting on the full report from them as to what exactly was concluded after the investigation.  I s it necessary to change his school at this point?  that was a thought, but because of how it is expected for parents to "work" together at matters such as schooling, etc, I didn't want to look like the bad guy by switching his school without her input.

Hello, I am in Virginia.  Last October, I was forced to ask for CPS to intervene on behath of my son, and he was taken from her home for a period of 4 months, until the conclusion of their investigation.  After the investigation was complete, the case worker notified me that he was able to return to the mother's home, I suppose that she resolved the issues that were addressed.  However, after 3 days in her care, my son was sent back to me, and has been with me for the past 6 months.  The mother and I share physical and legal custody, and our son lived with us both up until that point, six months ago, where he has only been with me.  The mother has not made any contact with my son within these six months, came to see, brought him clothes, nothing....He had a birthday that past a couple of months ago, and his little brother called using her phone, but she didn't talk to him on the phone, or come to see him, bring presents, etc.  The children have recently went back to school, and The school that he has been going to was under his mother address, in the next city over, approx. 30 minutes away.  I have had no problem taking him to school during this time.  It came to my attention within the last few days that the mother has moved from her address, to the point where he other kids are registered at a different school in a different school zone.  The other kids information has been updated with the new address information, but not my sons.  At this point, I am convinced that this is clear abandonment, and I am wondering if anyone knows the chances, or how to proceed in this case.  Im intending to file for full custody, but does this qualify as abandonment?  What route can I take, and what do you think are the chances?  I have been to the juvenile court in the past years a multitude of time, to mixed results.  My son is 11 years old, and in the 5th grade if that is pertinent.

my child doesnt live with the grandparents, there was a dual residency established when the shared custody was agreed upon. Until that point six months ago, my child lived with me and the mother, now my child has only been living with me.  The grandmother was asked to keep her by the mother, but my child is living with me

No, I have my own place, and my will be 10 in a few days.

Hello All,

I live in Virginia, and My child's mother and I share physical and legal custody of our child, this has been the case for the past 5 years.  Recently there was a child support case, that didn't necessarily go in her favor, and she began to mistreat our child as results.  I wont delve into specifics about that at the moment, but it was enough to have CPS involved, in which my child was removed from her home for some time.  Upon conclusion of the case, my child was allowed to return to her, in which she only stayed 3 days before the mother contacted my mom, to have my mom keep her grandchild, because of a babysitting/work scheduling issue.  A week after, I texted her to see if she had straightened out her situation, to the same result, that she was still working out her situation.  It has been six months since this, there has been no contact initiated by the mother, she has made no attempt to interact with her child, or support her child in any form or fashion, not to mention she resides 3 minutes up the street from my mother's residence, and working only a limited capacity, less than 20 hours a week, and having ample time to do so.  It may be worthy to mention that she has a younger child that isn't mine, and would obviously, and more appropriately require childcare/supervision for that child as well, it makes no sense to me to not have childcare/supervision for my child.  The child abandonment law in Virginia indicates that "intent to abandon a child" occurs when the child is left and no support is given for more than 30 days.  My question, is if anyone has any insight towards the prospect of securing Primary/Full custody in this matter?  I already have a stable home and a support system, I handle all of my child's appointments and extracurricular activities, as well as the costs and funding for such, and my relationship with my child is great.  I've spoken with a couple of attorneys in the matter, but I cant get a definite idea of how to approach the matter.  Any insight would be appreciated.

Hello all,

I present today with a rather confusing situation.  For my upcoming child support case, I find a number of subpoena duces tecum's, for the other parent to provide documents to support the case.  A total of two subpoenas were filed.  Needless to say, neither were complied with.  The first subpoena was served, but not complied with, the second returned to the sheriffs office with notice that the person wasn't located.  In fact, it indicated that the property manager stated that the individual didn't live there.  The problem is that not only do school records show that address, DCSE have address, The court has that address, im pretty sure they will give that address if I deposed them in court, and the original summons made it to the address.  Did they just work themselves into a conundrum?  I know for a fact the they do reside at the address I listed, I picked my child up from there the day after this happened for a dentist appointment, and every week during the pick up schedule.  What does this do about obtaining the documents?