The West Virginia House of Delegates is due to consider another bill to reform custody reform this year.
House Bill 2363 creates a “Best Interests of the Child Protection Act” which requires an equal share of a child when parents separate for the first time.
The law outlines the procedure for a hearing where a judge would help create an official joint custody plan. The draft law names the wishes of the child, the parents’ motivation, the closeness to school and the relationship with siblings as determining factors.
No parent in this act is allowed to have more than 65% of the time of a child once a joint custody plan has been established. The legislation makes exceptions for cases where a parent could pose a danger to a child, with clear indications of incompetence, abuse or neglect.
The bill is passed with a positive recommendation from the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, which on Monday spent more than an hour praising the bill’s main sponsor, Del. Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, sent to the entire House of Representatives for questioning.
Foster repeatedly referred to a 2014 study by the American custody psychologist Richard Warshak.
“Basically, it has been said that the predominant need for these children is that the more time they have with each parent, the better the child is,” Foster told committee members.
Legislators like Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, said Monday that Foster’s bill contradicts Warshak’s work and recommendations, particularly in regulating how much time a child spends with their parents.
“It says we should have balanced and meaningful contact with each parent, while avoiding a template that puts time on all families,” Fluharty said [split], aren’t you actually against the Warshak study? “
The House Judiciary Committee lawyer said that when the bill goes into effect, all joint custody cases would be resumed in the state so parents could reapply under the new standards.
How many of these cases there are in West Virginia was unclear on Monday evening. But Del. Lisa Zukoff, D-Marshall, asked if this was in the best interests of the children who have lived with one parent for most of their lives.
“Let’s take a hypothetical situation that was discussed earlier,” Zukoff asked Foster at one point. “The father has not seen the children for 15 months. Even if he hasn’t seen these children in 15 months, no matter what the circumstances or the age of a child – he wasn’t abusive, he just wasn’t there – we will take these children and give him 50-50 custody? “
Foster supported similar laws during the 2020 legislature.
As reported by the Beckley Register-Herald last year, lawyers for victims of domestic violence and child abuse have opposed previous custody reform laws.
In the meantime, the neighboring state of Kentucky has already passed laws on the “statutory presumption” of joint custody, as WFPL reported in 2018.
Other members of the House Judiciary had questions about how education would work for parents in different districts, or about moving if one parent had to move away from the other.
Although the committee’s vote was not unanimous, a majority of the Judiciary Committee agreed to send the bill to the entire House of Delegates with a “do pass” recommendation.
Emily Allen is a member of the Report for America corps.
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