The facts of this case are simple. The parents have two children, ages 8 and 10. As part of their divorce agreement, one parent was the primary residential custodial parent with the other parent having reasonable and liberal parenting time, to include every Thursday evening overnight into Friday mornings.
The primary parent, who works in the children's school (but is not their teacher) filed an application to modify midweek overnight parenting time asserting that the children often come to school unprepared on Friday mornings and without their homework completed. It was alleged that the primary parent then has to rush around on Friday mornings assisting the children with completing their assignments before school formally begins. The noncustodial parent obviously denies same, however the Court noted that neither party produced any corroborating evidence so the Court was forced to rely upon the parties own testimonial positions.
In its analysis, the Court took "judicial notice" (meaning something is so well known it cannot be reasonably doubted) that education is one of the most important aspects of a young child's life. The Court noted that children "need to learn from both parents, as early as possible, that tending to homework, test preparation and general scholastic readiness must take an appropriately high priority in a child's schedule".
That said, even in the cases where the parents are entirely cooperative, when the children go back and forth between households, this creates another layer of difficulty in trying to implement these fundamental educational values and maintain consistency. The Court opined while it is conceivable that back and forth parenting time could cause a child to incur a significant distribution and a loss of appropriate focus on meeting scholastic responsibilities, it is not per se harmful or contrary to a child's best interests. As with many issues that arise in a family law matter, it is fact-sensitive and case specific given that each family and child is unique.
The Court goes on to remind that:
"Shared parenting" means more than simply counting the
hours and minutes a child stays under a parent's roof but also
involves each parent meeting his or her responsibilities during
such a time rather than unilaterally passing it off onto the other
parent. Put another way, a parent cannot insist on simply taking
the children for parenting time while siphoning out the parenting
obligations which naturally continue to exist during such times. If
a parent wants midweek overnight parenting time during a school
year, that comes with all of the scholastic responsibility and
other midweek obligations, in one integrated package.
The Court noted that although the primary parent's testimony was persuasive there were evidentiary obstacles insofar as how prevalent the deficiencies that were complained of really were. Was this a situation where the child only missed 1 out of 10 assignments or a situation where the child's backpack was not even opened with nothing done at all? The Court noted that evidence could have been presented by school records, testimony from teachers, lower test scores or any other evidence of the children's lack of readiness on Fridays, as compared with other days when the children are in the care of the primary parent.
In sum, the Court found that there was insufficient evidence to make a specific finding that the homework issue was so prevalent as to require an immediate elimination of midweek overnight parenting time but established a helpful protocol for the parties moving forward as to how to deal with the issue of homework.
What can be taken away from this is case is how important it is to be fully prepared when presenting your application to the Court. Had the primary parent produced more corroborating evidence as to the magnitude of the missed assignments (assuming it was substantial), the outcome may have been different. It is always important to seek the advice of experienced counsel when presenting any application (especially an application to modify an existing arrangement/order) to the Court.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
