What does a Parenting Coordinator Do

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What does a Parenting Coordinator Do?
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Parent coordinator If youre in the middle of a
high-conflict divorce, the court may appoint a
parenting coordinator to work with you and your
ex spouse. "A Parenting Coordinator is a
qualified neutral person appointed by the court,
or agreed to by the parties, to facilitate the
resolution of day to day parenting issues that
frequently arise within the context of family
life when parents are separated. The court may
appoint a Parenting Coordinator at any time
during a case involving minor children after a
parenting plan has been established when the
parties cannot resolve these issues on their
own.  The Parenting Coordinators goal is to aid
parties in monitoring the existing parenting
plan, reducing misunderstandings, clarifying
priorities, exploring possibilities for
compromise and developing methods of
communication that promote collaboration in
parenting. The Parenting Coordinators role is to
facilitate decision making between the parties or
make such recommendations, as may be appropriate,
when the parties are unable to do so. One primary
goal of the Parenting Coordinator is to empower
parents to develop and utilize effective
parenting skills so that they can resume the
parenting and decision-making role without the
need for outside intervention. The Parenting
Coordinator should provide guidance and direction
to the parties with the primary focus on the best
interests of the child by reducing conflict and
fostering sound decisions that aid positive child
development." ( WIKIPEDIA definition)
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A PC -parenting coordinator is a relatively new
practice used in some US states to manage ongoing
issues in high-conflict divorce and custody
matters. They sometimes use a professional
psychologist or a lawyer /mediator assigned by
the Court (  or minors counsel) . There are 10
states as of May 2011 that have passed
legislation regarding parenting coordinators
Colorado (since 2005), Idaho (2002), Louisiana
(2007), New Hampshire (2009), North Carolina
(2005), Oklahoma (2001), Oregon (2002), Texas
(2005), and Florida (2009). Legislation has been
pending in Massachusetts for many years without
significant progress. In September 2014, the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court  ruled that
the trial judge lacked the power to appoint the
parenting coordinator without consent of both
parties, and that the broad authority given to
the parenting coordinator by the trial judge
constituted "an unlawful delegation of judicial
authority."Consequently, the Supreme Judicial
Court vacated the appointment order. Parenting
Coordinators are usually of two types licensed
professionals in a mental health or pastoral
field of counseling, or attorneys/mediators who
are in good standing with their state's Bar
Association. The parenting coordinator usually
meets with both parties regularly, receives
day-to-day questions and complaints about any
aspect of a party's conduct, and makes
recommendations to the parties.
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These recommendations effectively become
obligatory for parents to follow because the
Parental Coordinator can later testify in court
about the non-compliance. PC's have an extremely
wide range of issues they can decide on parents'
relations with their children, while your
parenting coordinator wont decide which home
your children will live in, he or she will help
you come up with visitation times that meet your
kids needs. Additionally, a parenting
coordinator can make decisions regarding    
  Where kids can go with their parents      
What activities kids can do with their parents
      Non-urgent medical care options      
Temporary variation from custody orders      
Other issues that relate to the childrens best
interests When youre in the middle of a
high-conflict divorce, its easy to lose sight of
whats really important your kids well-being.
When a judge notices that youre embroiled in a
battle that includes verbal abuse, extreme anger
and mistrust, physical aggression or difficulty
communicating when it comes to your kids, he or
she might decide that a parenting coordinator can
benefit your family.
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Parent coordinators are appointed to a set amount
of time, and if neither parents asks for the
court to extend that time, then the appointment
ends. A parent coordinator can also be removed if
the judge approves the removal after the
agreement of both parties, or if either party or
the parent coordinator makes a motion to the
court and the judge approves a Parental Time
Modification Order. Parental coordinators charge
parents involved for the time they have spent
with the children according to the rates they
have established as mental health or law
professionals. Parents normally split the charges
according to their court order.  Legal Angels
does a mediation approach with trained monitors
under the guidance of an attorney. If either
party does not agree with the PC recommendations,
then he/she can file a motion with the court to
make a decision on the disputed issue. Either
party can also ask  the court to appoint a new PC
to the case, but has to provide sufficient
evidence to convince the court that valid reasons
exist.   The Association of Family and
Conciliation Courts (www.afccnet.org) has
published guidelines and standards for Parental
Coordination and Custody Evaluations Over the
years, judges began to make numerous appointments
to attempt to, if not rid the courts, at least
create a buffer for parenting and visitation
issues that arose daily/weekly/monthly in high
conflict divorce and post-divorce matters. 
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Sometimes the professional was called a parent
coordinator, other times it was a therapeutic
monitor, a mediator, a parenting coach, etc.  The
role was generally the same, that is, to present
these issues to a neutral third party that had
either a legal or mental health background, or
both, to assist the parties work out the
differences and in many instances, make
recommendations if they could not.  A guide to
have them try to learn to co-parent along with
classes. Picking the right  PC is the key.  If
you and your spouse cannot do it, a court just
might. Article Resource - https//www.legalangels
monitoring.com/post/what-does-a-parenting-coordina
tor-do