The Custody Assessment Toolkit is a guide for courts and appointed neutral observers to help families resolve disputes about parenting time and shared rights and responsibilities.
The Custody Assessment Toolkit is a guide for courts and appointed neutral observers to help families resolve disputes about parenting time and shared rights and responsibilities.
Courts have new tools at their disposal to help families resolve disputes over parenting time and the division of parental rights and responsibilities.
The Ohio Supreme Court has developed a toolkit called the Custody Evaluations Toolkit for Judicial Use that provides courts with information about their jurisdiction, best practices, laws, and rules that guide decision-making in custody disputes.
If problems arise with co-parenting or custody of the child, the court may appoint an impartial third party to assess the child’s needs, health, safety and development and to make a written assessment of this. Custody assessors are neutral observers and may be psychologists, social workers, or family therapists. The expert reports the findings and recommendations to the appointing court.
In 2021, the Supreme Court passed standard requirements for custody assessments and related expert reports, and minimum training standards for professional custody assessors. The aim of this rule is to promote the competence of those who carry out these assessments.
The Justice Toolkit standardizes the process of gathering information and what should be included in a report to the court. The toolkit explains the differences between a custody review and other court-ordered investigations. It also sets out the differences between a procedural guardian, who is often an attorney who works in the child’s best interests but is unlikely to be trained in behavioral sciences and scientific methodology.
Physicians wishing to serve as court custody assessors must complete 40 hours of training before they can be appointed.
The Ohio Judicial College offers 40 hours of free online self-paced continuing education credits to licensed Ohio professionals interested in serving as Custody Evaluators. Professionals who are already serving as custody experts have until February 1, 2024 to complete the 40 hours of pre-training.
The Custody Assessment Toolkit for Judicial Purposes is available on the Supreme Court website.
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