Webinars on Child Custody

In recent years, the Office of Child Support Enforcement has supported several pilot programs aimed at establishing concurrent child support and parenting time orders. This webinar will first give a brief summary of important considerations regarding the prevalence of domestic violence survivors in the child support system, screening practices, and the relationship between parenting time, child support payment, and child well-being. Next, colleagues from the Texas Council on Family Violence will describe promising practices pertaining to the state child support system establishment of parenting time orders. They will share how collaborative efforts with the Texas Child Support Division have made the system safer for survivors of domestic violence. Because Texas is one of the few states with a longstanding mandate under state law to address parenting time in the child support process, our presenters can give a unique perspective on the potential and pitfalls for families experiencing domestic violence.

This webinar provides tools to equip advocates help women who are considering fleeing make fully informed decisions and will include a brief overview of state and federal kidnapping laws particularly those laws that are important to battered women. It also explores a hypothetical case from start to finish and identify effective interventions and strategies for women and children. This webinar was hosted by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Assessing and Accounting for Domestic Violence in Child Custody (Part 1 of 2). The Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody (RCDV:CPC), a project of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) presented a two-part series, Connections in Custody Series, designed to inform recommendations and decisions in custody cases and address barriers to collaboration, especially for low-income communities and communities of color. The webinars are intended for judges, domestic violence advocates, legal professionals, responsible fatherhood and batterer intervention programs, and third-party professionals involved in the resolution of family conflict.

Considerations in Collaborative Efforts to Address Father Involvement and Domestic Violence (Part 2 of 2). The Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody (RCDV:CPC), a project of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) presented a two-part series, Connections in Custody Series, designed to inform recommendations and decisions in custody cases and address barriers to collaboration, especially for low-income communities and communities of color. The webinars are intended for judges, domestic violence advocates, legal professionals, responsible fatherhood and batterer intervention programs, and third party professionals involved in the resolution of family conflict.

While mediation offers many parents an alternative to formal and often adversarial court processes, they may also present serious safety and parenting consequences for domestic violence survivors and their children. The Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody offers this webinar to help advocates orient survivors to common custody mediation processes, make them aware of risks that mediation may pose, and suggest tangible ways to help survivors prepare for the mediation.

Custody evaluators, guardian ad litems, and parenting coordinators are a few examples of the professionals who may be assigned to a custody case involving domestic violence. This webinar provides insight from a professional’s perspective on how battered women fare with these professionals and offers suggestions for how advocates and others can help battered women work effectively with various processes and professionals they may encounter during the courts of their custody case. This webinar was hosted by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

On September 11, 2019, the Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody will host a webinar entitled Parenting Plans: What advocates should know. This webinar is a continuation of our self-represented litigants’ webinar series and is geared towards an audience of domestic violence advocates working with self-represented litigants. The webinar will parallel the new self-represented litigants’ publication that will come out later this year. Like the publication, the webinar will discuss what parenting plans are, how they are created and modified, and what terms they entail. Because the audience is domestic violence advocates, the webinar will flag common terms in parenting plans that can increase danger for survivors and children and will offer alternative provisions that better account for safety. Although the target audience for the webinar is survivors, it will be presented in a way that will also benefit self-represented litigants, attorneys, mediators and any other professionals helping prepare parenting plans for cases involving domestic violence.

Have domestic violence survivors ever asked you about leaving the state with their children to flee from abuse?

The LRC, in partnership with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, will be offering a webinar which will focus on basic interstate custody and relocation issues for advocates. The webinar will provide participants with an overview of the various federal and state laws that govern interstate custody cases and is designed for advocates who wish to understand how these laws fit together. Case scenarios will be used to demonstrate how advocates can help survivors address the economic, safety, and legal issues involved when they cross state lines for safety. Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions during the presentation.