National Parents Organization

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National Parents Organization
AbbreviationNPO
Formation1998
FoundersNed Holstein, John Cristofano, Phil Clendenning, John Maguire
Type 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charitable organization
PurposeTo make shared parenting the norm by reforming family courts and laws
HeadquartersNewton, Massachusetts, United States
Key people
Ned Holstein, Founder and Chair
Donald Hubin, Chair, Board of Directors
AffiliationsState affiliates
Website www.sharedparenting.org
Formerly called
Fathers and Families

The National Parents Organization (NPO) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable and educational organization in the United States that promotes shared parenting. The organization focuses on family court reform, research, and public education with the goal to make shared parenting the general norm for separated parenting.

Contents

History

The organization was founded in Massachusetts in 1998 with the name Foundation for Fathers and Families. The founders were Ned Holstein, John Cristofano, Phil Clendenning and John Maguire. The name was later shortened to Fathers and Families. In 2013, the name was changed to the National Parents Organization in order to reflect the organization's belief in gender-neutral shared parenting and parental equality, as opposed to seeking any special rights for fathers. [1] [2] [3] The stated mission of the organization is "to improve the lives of children and strengthen society by protecting every child's right to the love and care of both parents after separation or divorce." [4]

Family court reform

The National Parents Organization seeks to reform laws both at the state and the national level to encourage shared parenting. Most of the family court reform work is done by local affiliates on a state-by-state basis. [5] [6]

In Kentucky, the National Parents Organization was involved in the 2018 passage of HB528, the nation's first presumption that shared parenting is in the best interest of the child. [7] [8] In Virginia, the local affiliate led the campaign for House Bill 1351, requiring courts to consider shared custody arrangements. [9]

In 2016, the NPO affiliate in Missouri helped pass a law stating that judges may not give custody preference to a parent because of gender, age, or financial status. [10] [11]

In Utah, the National Parents Organization was a catalyst for House Bill 35, which encourages family courts to more equally award physical custody after a divorce or separation. The bill passed in 2015. [12]

The organization has helped pass military parent-child custody legislation in several states and has introduced legislation protecting men and children against paternity fraud. Members have served on state child support guideline revision committees. [5] [13] [14]

Research

The organization promotes and disseminates scientific research on how children are affected by shared parenting versus other custody arrangements.

In collaboration with the International Council on Shared Parenting, NPO organized and sponsored a conference on shared parenting that included leading researchers from around the world. [15] Conclusions of this conference were summarized in "Shared Parenting After Parental Separation: The Views of 12 Experts," [16] with this statement: "these 12 experts largely agreed that SP should now be a legal presumption, that a minimum of 35% of the child’s time should be allocated to each parent for the child to reap the benefits of SP, and that the existence of interparental conflict or opposition to SP by one parent should no longer be grounds to preclude or rebut SP" (p. 383).

In 2014, NPO published the 2014 NPO Shared Parenting Report Card," [17] which graded each state on the degree to which the state's statutes promote or inhibit shared parenting after divorce or separation. The highest grade, which was just a B, was received by Alaska, Arizona, and Minnesota. The lowest grade of an F was received by New York and Rhode Island. [18]

In 2019, NPO published another Shared Parenting Report Card. [18] This report showed progress in enacting legislation to promote shared parenting. Two states, Arizona and Kentucky, received grades in the A range, and every legislative initiative between 2014 and 2019 was favorable to shared parenting.

In 2018 the Ohio NPO chapter evaluated and compared the court guidelines that each county uses to determine parenting time when parents cannot agree. Each county received a grade of A to F, with A given to guidelines with the most equal time. Most counties received a D, but two counties, Ashtabula and Tuscarawas, received an A, while one county, Van Wert, received an F. [19] The media attention generated interest and discussions among judges and court officials, with some counties revising their guidelines. [20] [21]

The Ohio NPO chapter repeated the Ohio Parenting Time Report in the fall of 2020. It showed significant improvement in the local parenting time rules of a handful of counties. Six counties received grades in the A range and no counties received a grade of F. [22]

Public education

Through conferences and media, the National Parents Organization does public education promoting shared parenting, based on scientific research. Members also work to raise awareness of parental alienation. [23]

Together with the International Council on Shared Parenting, the National Parents Organization sponsored the Third International Conference on Shared Parenting, held in Boston in May 2017. The theme of the conference was Shared Parenting Research: A Watershed in Understanding Children’s Best Interest? The conference had presentations by scientists in the field of optimal post-divorce parenting arrangements. [24] [25]

The organization engages social, local, and national media to raise awareness about the family court system, shared parenting, and parental alienation, with coverage by many both minor and major media outlets. [26] [27] For example, in 2018 the co-chair of the Virginia chapter wrote an Op-Ed on comparing the growing uproar to children being separated from their parents at the border with the forced child-parent separations imposed by our family courts. [28]

Organizational structure

The organization is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts; Ned Holstein is the founder and chairman of the board emeritus. Donald Hubin, Ph.D. is the chairman of the board. Other National Parents Organization board members include Matt Hale, Benny Hau, Linda Reutzel and Ashley-Nicole Russell. [29]

There are 26 state affiliates in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. [30]

Related Research Articles

Family law is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations.

Child support is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child following the end of a marriage or other similar relationship. Child maintenance is paid directly or indirectly by an obligor to an obligee for the care and support of children of a relationship that has been terminated, or in some cases never existed. Often the obligor is a non-custodial parent. The obligee is typically a custodial parent, a caregiver, or a guardian.

Shared parenting, shared residence, joint residence, shared custody, joint physical custody, equal parenting time (EPT) is a child custody arrangement after divorce or separation, in which both parents share the responsibility of raising their child(ren), with equal or close to equal parenting time. A regime of shared parenting is based on the idea that children have the right to and benefit from a close relationship with both their parents, and that no child should be separated from a parent.

The fathers' rights movement is a social movement whose members are primarily interested in issues related to family law, including child custody and child support, that affect fathers and their children. Many of its members are fathers who desire to share the parenting of their children equally with their children's mothers—either after divorce or marital separation. The movement includes men as well as women, often the second wives of divorced fathers or other family members of men who have had some engagement with family law.

A parenting plan is a child custody plan that is negotiated by parents, and which may be included in a marital separation agreement or final decree of divorce. Especially when a separation is acrimonious to begin with, specific agreements about who will discharge these responsibilities and when and how they are to be discharged can reduce the need for litigation. Avoiding litigation spares parties not only the financial and emotional costs of litigation but the uncertainty of how favorable or unfavorable a court's after-the-fact decision will be. Moreover, the agreement itself can authorize the employment of dispute-resolution methods, such as arbitration and mediation, that may be less costly than litigation.

Joint custody is a court order whereby custody of a child is awarded to both parties. In the United States, there are two forms of joint custody, joint physical custody and joint legal custody. In joint physical custody, the lodging and care of the child is shared according to a court-ordered parenting schedule with equal or close to equal parenting time. In joint legal custody, both parents share the ability to make decisions about the child, regarding e.g. education, medical care and religion, and both can access their children's educational and health records.

Child custody is a legal term regarding guardianship which is used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent or guardian and a child in that person's care. Child custody consists of legal custody, which is the right to make decisions about the child, and physical custody, which is the right and duty to house, provide and care for the child. Married parents normally have joint legal and physical custody of their children. Decisions about child custody typically arise in proceedings involving divorce, annulment, separation, adoption or parental death. In most jurisdictions child custody is determined in accordance with the best interests of the child standard.

In family law, contact, visitation and access are synonym terms that denotes the time that a child spends with the noncustodial parent, according to an agreed or court specified parenting schedule. The visitation term is not used in a shared parenting arrangement where both parents have joint physical custody.

An income shares formula is used by many states to establish the child support amount of each child rather than what it actually costs to raise a child. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, In income share model, both parents responsible for the children for contributing financially to the children. Income shares tables calculating child support are not based directly on actual spending on children but rather on indirect estimates of child costs. Income shares model depend on that a child receive the same proportion of parental income and also it assumes that child costs reflect the spending necessary to restore a family's standard of living back to what it was prior to the divorce or having a child. It is very reasonable for the children who their parents divorced. It is consistent with the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act. This technique was first developed in the 19th century to answer economic questions among different family types, but was never intended to measure the cost of rearing children. The purpose of the income shares- child support lead to more fair and regular fundamental child support awards. Also, governments should regard different political balances that are equality and transparency.

The fathers' rights movement in the United States is a group that provides fathers with education, support and advocacy on family law issues of child custody, access, child support, domestic violence and child abuse. Members protest what they see as evidence of gender bias against fathers in the branches and departments of various governments, including the family courts.

The fathers' rights movement has simultaneously evolved in many countries, advocating for shared parenting after divorce or separation, and the right of children and fathers to have close and meaningful relationships. This article provides details about the fathers' rights movement in specific countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International child abduction in Japan</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian family law</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Families Need Fathers</span> Organization

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Edward Kruk is a Canadian sociologist and social worker. He has conducted internationally recognized research on child custody, shared parenting, family mediation, divorced fathers, parental alienation, parental addiction, child protection, and grandparent access to their grandchildren. Kruk is an associate professor of social work at the University of British Columbia. He is the founding president of the International Council on Shared Parenting.

Donald Clayton Hubin is an American philosopher, specializing in ethics, legal philosophy and political philosophy. He has published research on justice and future generations, parental rights, paternity, instrumental rationality and benefit-cost analysis, among other topics. Hubin is a professor emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at Ohio State University and the Founding Director Emeritus of its Center for Ethics and Human Values. He serves as the Chair of the national board of National Parents Organization.

Kentucky House Bill 528 is a 2018 family law that created a rebuttable presumption that both parents' equal shared parenting time and equal parental decision-making are in the child's best interest. Signed by Governor Matt Bevin on April 26, 2018, it was the first such law for permanent child custody orders passed in the United States. A temporary order aided the law's passage of the shared parenting bill, House Bill 492, passed a year before. The law became a motivator for similar bills to be passed in other states.

References

  1. ↑ "Nonprofit Report for National Parents Organization Inc".
  2. ↑ "By: Ned Holstein, MD, MS, Founder and Chair of the Board". Archived from the original on 2018-11-29. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  3. ↑ "Fathers & Families". Fairness.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-29. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  4. ↑ "Mission + Achievements — National Parents Organization". Sharedparenting.org. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  5. 1 2 "NPO Achievements – Outlining National Parent Organization's History of Advocacy". National Parent Organization.
  6. ↑ Jennifer Ludden (February 26, 2014). "Push To Change Custody Laws: What's Best For Kids?". National Public Radio.
  7. ↑ Ryland Barton (April 29, 2018). "Joint Custody Will Be The Default Under New Kentucky Law". WFPL National Public Radio.
  8. ↑ Matt Hale (November 29, 2018). "Opinion: Shared parenting law has fantastic election day". The Daily Independent.
  9. ↑ Saleen Martin (May 29, 2018). "When parents split, new Virginia law will make it easier to get joint custody". The Virginian-Pilot.
  10. ↑ Linda Reutzel (May 9, 2018). "On Mother's Day, let's celebrate shared parenting". The St. Louis Post – Dispatch.
  11. ↑ Mark Bliss (October 12, 2017). "Child-custody advocate: State law needs fix to provide parents with more equal custody". Southeast Missourian.
  12. ↑ Danielle Downs (May 19, 2015). "Utah's new shared parenting law in effect". Daily Herald. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
  13. ↑ "NPO's Deuel appointed to serve 4-year term on Utah Child Support Guidelines Advisory Committee". National Parents Organization. November 7, 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-01-24. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  14. ↑ "Report of the Child Support Guidelines Task Force" (PDF). Mass.gov. October 2008.
  15. ↑ "Home". sharedparenting.net.
  16. ↑ Braver, Sanford L.; Lamb, Michael E. (2018). "Shared Parenting After Parental Separation: The Views of 12 Experts". Journal of Divorce & Remarriage. 59 (5): 372–387. doi:10.1080/10502556.2018.1454195. S2CID   149843380 – via ResearchGate.
  17. ↑ "2014 Shared Parenting Report".
  18. 1 2 "2019 Shared Parenting Report Card, A New Look At Child Welfare, A State-by-State Ranking". National Parents Organization. 2019.
  19. ↑ Donald C. Hubin, Frank Glandorf, Julia W. Carpenter-Hubin (August 29, 2018). "NPO Ohio Parenting Time Report". National Parents Organization.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ↑ Rita Price (December 9, 2018). "Should Ohio divorce courts follow same standard in setting shared parenting?". The Columbus Dispatch. Archived from the original on January 11, 2019. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
  21. ↑ Paige Pfleger (September 17, 2018). "Report Reveals Antiquated Court Custody Guidelines Across Ohio". Cincinnati Public Radio News, WVXU.
  22. ↑ "Ohio Parenting Time Report".
  23. ↑ "Disposable Dad". Salt Lake City Weekly.
  24. ↑ Edward Kruk (26 June 2017). "Understanding Children's Best Interests in Divorce: Conclusions of the Third International Conference on Shared Parenting". Psychology Today.
  25. ↑ Traci L. Slatton (30 May 2017). "International Conference in Shared Parenting 2017: Watershed Moment". Huffington Post.
  26. ↑ "RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS". National Parents Organization.
  27. ↑ Jonathan Ellis, USA TODAY (27 January 2014). "Shared parenting could be new divorce outcome". usatoday.com.
  28. ↑ Christian Paasch (August 9, 2018). "Child separation issues go well beyond the border". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
  29. ↑ "Officers + Board".
  30. ↑ "NPO State Affiliates". NPO.
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