School Attendance - Academics

[pw7285]

Was defining "best interest of the child" made to be so subjective?

At what point (if any) can a father tell the court that his daughter is not getting the best support from her custodial parent with regard to school?  Does this even matter to the courts? My daughter is in 3rd grade and lives in another state with her mother who does not work and lives literally 2 minutes if that from school and she can't seem to get her there on time?!?!?!?  This has been going on since she was in 1st grade and is becoming very frustrating.  We have joint custody and I live 1500 miles away.  I see my daughter every 8-10 weeks and when I am there during the school week I am a room dad at the school.  Her mother only goes to school for PTC and thats it.  Again, she doesn't work and lives 2 minutes from school.

Our daughter is having trouble with some subjects so the school offered her before or after school tutoring and mom refuses, she says it's too early or too long of a day.  I could go on and on with this but I won't.  My question is do the courts look at school as being part of what is in the "best interest of the child" or is this just a drop in the "she is not being physically abused so she is fine" bucket?

Thanks

[gemini3]

In my experience it was chalked up to "different parenting styles", and no one wanted to make a judgement call on which parenting style was "better" than the other.

You might have a leg to stand on if your daughter is failing and not getting the support she needs.

[pw7285]

gemini3 - thank you for your response.

It is frustrating to hear/see the lack of participation from her mother when it comes to school.  The only one that is being affected is my daughter.  She has to be embarrassed walk into class late, struggle with her studies all because mom won't get her butt out of bed and drive her 4 blocks to school.  I have been contacted by my daughter's teachers and guidance counselors since 1st grade regarding her attendance.  I have no doubt that if it came down to it that I could get letters to support this from each one of her teachers.