home school

[littlebit]

I am looking for information or knowledge of home-schooling in regards to custody. I have put up with so much nonsense from my ex and kept quiet for the sake of our child's peace of mind, but it has now gone too far: she has secretly taken 10yo son out of school to home school him. (We have joint custody) Without going into all the details, I will give one example. She said that the judge did not know what she was doing by giving me so much time with son, so she would deal with it her own way. And she has dealt with it many many times by keeping us apart, alienation tactics, false acusations, etc., but this is the last straw.

Would changing from public school to home school be a significant change of circumstance to justify change of custody or change in visitation?

Also, I have heard of a case in Etowah county Alabama (i'm in AL) that was just filed for similar reasons. How I could find out more details about that case?

[socrateaser]

>Would changing from public school to home school be a
>significant change of circumstance to justify change of
>custody or change in visitation?

Probably not, but if you have joint legal custody, then home schooling the child without your consent or further orders of the court may be contempt. The court would have to decide if the mother had sufficient notice from the text of the order and the facts to take such unilateral action willfully, with knowledge that it was likely contempt. So, what I would do, is write her a letter stating that, as you have joint custody, that you consider her actions without your consent a willful violation of the custody orders, and that if she doesn not immediately return the child to the public school system, that you will file a contempt motion and ask the court to decide the matter for both of you.

Now, I don't know if this particular parent has the skills necesary to do a credible job of home schooling. If she does NOT have such skills, for example, if she has only a high school degree and her basic skills (reading, writing, math, history, etc.) are fairly weak as evidenced by her grades in school, then you could possibly get a termporary restraining order on grounds that the mother is not skilled enough to home school the child and therefore that the child will suffer irreparable harm by being removed from the public school system.

If the mother is well educated, then you probably couldn't get such an order, or at least it will be difficult to meet your burden of proof.

It's a tough call without all of the facts and circumstances. It could backfire on you and judge might find the violation of the order di minimis and dismiss it.

As for your other allegations, they are all unsupported, so I can't comment on them.

>Also, I have heard of a case in Etowah county Alabama (i'm in
>AL) that was just filed for similar reasons. How I could find
>out more details about that case?

If you know either of the parties' names, then you can call the county courthouse, speak with the clerk, and ask them to send you a copy of the complaint/petition, or you could go there and copy it yourself.

If you don't know the parties' names, then you're pretty much outta luck, unless you can find the story in the archives of a local newspaper or media outlet.

[littlebit]

Great advice, THANK YOU!  

I am drafting a letter to send to ex.

I do have the name of one party involved.  

Just got off the phone with court clerk.  She was ready to send me the information until she asked what relation I was to the case.  I answered honestly.  She said I would need to submit a written request stating who I am and why I wanted the info, and that it would go into the permanent file for that case.  I responed politely enough "Oh, I thought that was public record"...'Yes it is, but we have a lot of nosey people, so letting everyone know that thier request will be in the record discourages a lot of that'.

Can they do that?