During the height of the COVID disruption in 2020, Chief Administrative Judge Michael A. Albis reformed the Connecticut family court system through his bold Triage & Pathways initiative. The key provisions of the new approach, early intervention through family relations and the new legal process that will come into effect on October 1, 2021 (under Public Act 21-104), allow two fit parents who meet certain conditions to complete their parental plan take over without hiring lawyers and filing a motion filing motions or arguing before a judge.
Mediation through family relationships or a parent-chosen mediator is now promoted by Triage and Pathways. Explain Judge Albis’ own words:
This approach encourages collaborative, child-centered resolution rather than adversarial litigation that often prevents separated parents from focusing on raising their children. Triage & Pathways procedures encourage parents to find out about bringing up their children together and in parallel in shared households. Parents can use the money they could pay attorneys and court-appointed professionals – typically $ 15,000 and often much more – for the benefit of their children.
The National Parents Organization (sharedparenting.org), in partnership with the Shared Parenting Council of Connecticut (sharedparentinginc.org), commissioned a survey of Connecticut citizens’ views on raising children from separated households. The survey, carried out in late summer 2021 by the renowned independent polling institute Researchscape International, found an amazing consensus: strong support for triage & pathways and for common parenting as the norm when parents are separated.
When asked whether children are best served with procedures that allow them to “develop an educational plan without hiring lawyers, filing motions, or arguing in front of a judge,” 80% of men and women answered “yes.” “. Should a child have plenty of time with each fit and willing parent? Over 95% say this arrangement is extremely or very beneficial!
Over 85% of men and women support a Connecticut law change to “create a rebuttable presumption that parenthood is in a child’s best interests after parental separation.” And an impressive 94% say they are more likely to vote for a candidate who “supports children who spend significantly up to the same amount of time with each parent after their parents separated or divorced”. 83 percent believe that transferring sole custody to just one parent increases the conflict. Here is a link to the full survey results.
What Convince Parents in Connecticut to Support Shared Parenting? Well, we now have more than 40 years of scientific research showing that, in the vast majority of cases, children are well served when both parents largely share parental responsibility, provided both parents are fit. On any well-being metric, children who share parenting do as well as children whose parents live together. And they do much better than children raised by only one parent with minimal involvement from the other parent. These conclusions are not supported by a handful of studies, but by more than 60 independent studies conducted by Dr. Linda Nielsen (Wake Forest University) were evaluated. (Here you will find important current research results.)
Connecticut lawmakers can and should take steps to make shared parenting the norm. Creating a legal presumption that widespread sharing of parental responsibility is in the best interests of children would help break the outdated custodial / non-custodial parent model that defaults to too many parents. And it would reassure parents that divorce / separation doesn’t have to affect their relationship with their children, thereby reducing the level of anxiety and trauma some parents face when marginalized in their children’s lives.
Connecticut voters overwhelmingly want that. It’s what more Connecticut kids deserve.
John M. Clapp, PhD and Eric L. Gladstein, DMD, are Chair and Vice Chairs, respectively, of the Shared Parenting Council of Connecticut, Inc. The SPC Board of Directors unanimously voted to post this comment.
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