Missouri is one signature away from mandating shared parenting, and it would join a growing list of states looking to equalize custody for divorced parents.
Missouri’s proposed legislation pushes judges to order shared parent custody arrangements and requires courts to disclose the reasoning behind any other arrangement ruled by the judge. The bill also creates parental outlines for joint custody agreements and mandates that family courts can’t assume a parent is more qualified than the other parent based on gender.
State Rep. Jim Neely sponsored the bill that unanimously passed the Senate and passed the House 154-2 before being sent to Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s desk in late May, where it remains. Neely told the Washington Examiner he expects the governor to sign the bill.
The view that both parents need to be involved in their child’s life was the emphasis behind the legislation, Neely said. “If there’s compelling evidence and issues, you need to maybe make some changes.”
Bills of similar content have been met with mixed success in other state legislatures, and more than 20 states are looking into shared-parenting measures. In 2014, South Dakota passed a measure that encouraged shared parenting in divorces, and Utah passed a similar bill that enabled divorced parents to split time equally with their child in 2015. Maine, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas and other states have introduced custody-related legislation that failed to pass into law.
And this year, a bill that would have enabled equal time-sharing for both parents passed the House and Senate chambers in Florida’s Legislature before it was vetoed by Gov. Rick Scott, who argued the bill could place the “wants of a parent before the child’s best interest.” Massachusetts is taking up a bill that minimizes primary custody and encourages a shared parent role.
Ned Holstein, a long-time advocate for shared parenting, is the founder and executive director of the National Parents Organization, a group that pushes for custody changes at the state level.
In an interview with the Examiner, Holstein cited “overwhelming” evidence showing children thrive in a shared parent custody situation, and cited children experienced increased educational attainment, decreased drug and alcohol consumption, and a lesser likelihood for teenage pregnancies.
Holstein said a gender bias in the court system hinders change, despite modern gender roles converging and the average American family now maintaining two breadwinners who can still care for their child. According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau report, an estimated 17.5 percent of fathers were the child’s custodial parent in 2013. “You don’t have to be Einstein to perceive gender bias in the family courts,” Holstein said.
Critics argue that changes to the family legal system would eliminate sometimes-critical judicial discretion, and that a “statutory straight jacket” on courts would be too binding of a measure. Opponents of shared parenting also say the child should be raised in a consistent environment — with one bed, one set of rules and under one roof.
Holstein classified the broad definition of shared parenting, in its current state, as “ludicrous.” Judges have considered parents spending every other weekend with their child as shared parenting, and with the proposed bill in Massachusetts, parents would need to spend only one-third of the time with their child in order to have shared parent custody.
Holstein said child custodial laws at the federal level won’t be changed anytime soon, but given the national discussion on other gender-related issues such as unisex bathrooms, the dialogue surrounding shared parenting may soon be thrust into the spotlight.
And while Holstein doesn’t quite echo Neely’s confidence that the Missouri governor will sign the bill into law, he said people largely support shared parent custody “in every poll that’s ever been taken.”
“Even though we may lose this time around,” Holstein said, “we will win and will keep winning.”
