Addressing Parenting Time in Child Support Programs: The Texas and Oregon Experience [No Audio: Thursday, September 14, 2017. 2:00pm-3:30pm EDT] Kurt: Hello everyone and welcome to our live webtalk, Addressing Parenting Time in Child Support Programs: The Texas and Oregon Experience. Thanks for joining us. At any time, you may adjust your audio using any computer or device volume setting that you have available on your equipment. On the right-hand side of your screen, you will see a window labeled 'Submit Questions Here'. To submit a question or a comment for the presenters at any time, type that question or comment in the small text box at the bottom. When you're finished, click the 'Send' button or simply press enter. You may do this at any time during the program. All questions that you submit are only seen by today's presentation team. Questions will be addressed at the end of the presentation. However, please note that due to time constraints, our speakers may not be able to respond to all questions submitted. You will now see a polling question appear. We want you to tell us how many people there are at your particular location. That's now appearing on your screen. Simply type in the number of people that are participating at your location. We'll give everyone about 20 seconds to complete that poll. Again, we're just looking for the number of people at your location. With that, it's now my pleasure to introduce Ellen Rutledge. She will be our moderator for today's program. Ellen, welcome to the program. [No Audio: Ellen Rutledge. Ellen’s child support experience includes project management, supervising attorney, and the agency attorney for the Wyoming Department of Family Services. Ellen also worked at the Sheridan County CASA Program. Ellen is a graduate of the University of Wyoming College of Law and the University of Missouri School of Journalism.] Ellen Rutledge: Thank you very much. Good afternoon, at least here in the Midwest. My name is Ellen Rutledge, and I'm coming to you from Jefferson City, Missouri. I will be moderating today's presentation. When I'm not coordinating webtalks for NCSEA, I am the Professional Development Coordinator for Young Williams. My job is to create networking and training opportunities for the attorneys who work in our full-service projects. This webinar is packed full of practical information. It was a lot of fun to put together because these three speakers knew each other, knew each other's programs, and they're clearly passionate about the topic. When I introduce people, I like to give a fun fact. Since this is a parenting session, I wanted to get something from each presenter about their parents and about things were like when they grew up, so I asked them what was their favorite meal when they lived at home. I'll give you that fun information about each one of them, as well as a quick introduction to their professional backgrounds. [No Audio: Dr. Jessica Pearson. Dr. Pearson served as co-principal investigator of a seven-state demonstration project that resulted in the creation of the State Access and Visitation Grant Program that now awards $10 million annually for programs to support parenting time. She regularly publishes in journals and presents at practitioner conferences] Our first speaker is Dr. Jessica Pearson. She will lead everything off with some history about parenting programs and parenting in the child support world. She is currently the Director of the Center for Policy Research located in Denver, Colorado, and the Co-Director of Fatherhood Research and Practice Network. She founded the center in 1981 and her research include some of the first national studies of mediation in custody and visitation disputes, parent education, and supervised visitation. She has evaluated child support initiatives, including hospital-based paternity, family-centered services, collaborations with workforce agencies, early intervention strategies, methods of avoiding and addressing child support debt, and addressing parenting time orders and access and visitation issues. She presents regularly. In April 2015, she edited a special issue of the Family Court Review, dealing with parenting time and co-parenting for unmarried parents. You can find that in volume 53, number two. Jessica's favorite family meal growing up was macaroni and cheese, known as “mackers” at her house. [No Audio: Ruth Ann Thornton. Ms. Thornton holds a BA in Political Science from St. Edward’s University and a Master of Public Administration from Texas State University. ] Our next presenter is Ruth Anne Thornton. Ruth Anne is the Chief of Staff for the Texas Office of the Attorney General. She provides support to the IV-D Director and Child Support Division. Her division's responsibility is to ensure that the division meets all federal program performance standards and that Texas family law conforms to federal requirements for child support establishment and enforcement. Ruth Anne's favorite family meal night was taco night. She had to fight for the cheese with her brothers. [No Audio: Dawn Marquardt. She is licensed to practice law in Wisconsin, Oregon, and Colorado. ] Finally, Dawn Marquardt from Oregon will talk about Oregon's interactive parenting plan and the support for this tool. Dawn is the Deputy Director and Policy Section Chief for the Oregon Child Support Program. Dawn is the Tribal Liaison for the Child Support Program. Prior to her work in Oregon, Dawn served as the Assistant Corporation Counsel with the Dane County Support Agency in Madison, Wisconsin. Dawn's favorite family meal is steak and cheesy hash browns. Without further ado, I'll turn the presentation over to Jessica. [No Audio: Parenting Time in the IV-D Child Support Program. Jessica Pearson, Ph.D. Director, Center for Policy Research, Denver, Colorado. Co-Director, Fatherhood Research and Practice Network (FRPN). 303-837-1555, jspearson@centerforpolicyresearch.org, www.centerforpolicyresearch.org ] Jessica Pearson: Thank you. Thanks very much, Ellen. We're going to be talking today about two different approaches to addressing parenting time. That really means the amount of time children spend with each parent when they are not together. [No Audio: Why focus on parenting time in the IV-D program? -Automatic child support order w/o parenting time --- perception of bias. –IPV is a problem with or without a parenting plan. – The Sense of Congress in PL 113-183 establishes safe parenting time as a goal. ] First, I want to give a little overview of why we are focusing on this because, as we know, parenting time is really not an allowable activity in the IV-D program and it's not eligible for reimbursement through FFP, but it is highly relevant. Anyone who works in the program will know, will agree. I just was reminded of that when I observed an order establishment process two weeks ago at a child support agency in Colorado. In this case, the first question the father had when entered is, "Am I going to get parenting time?" and they called it visitation at the end of this meeting. He was told, "No. We're not going to do that," but, in this case, the child support officer said, "But I can schedule you a time to meet with the mediator who comes to our agency every Thursday." That really changed the total emotional tone of the session. I think that people will potentially relate to that kind of dynamic. We're addressing it because child support covers of 17 million children, a million new orders every year. The majority of those children in the IV-D system are born out of wedlock, non- marital birth, and with few exceptions, and we'll hear some today, there's no parenting time presumption or a provision in child support orders since this shows that seven out of 10 child support non-custodial parents in the IV-D system have no legal order for access, and workers have to tell parents that they're two legally distinct issues. For the most part, they're told to go to a court to engage in a separate legal activity to establish parenting time. Nevertheless, in 34 states, parenting time factors into child support guidelines. We have a Sense of Congress as part of the preventing sex trafficking act that establishes parenting time as a goal. Some states and jurisdictions do address parenting time. We're going to address it today for a variety of these reasons. [No Audio: Child Support Processes and Formal Parenting Time Agreements. Graphic shows the flow from Birth Certificate to Process to Outcome. With married women, paternity is automatic, through the process in Family Court divorced NCPs can have an outcome that includes a Child Support Order, Custody Agreement, and Parenting time order. For unmarried women, the outcome is a IV-D order (usually) with no parenting time agreement in juvenile court.] This graphic shows you the predicament for unmarried parents in the child support system. Unlike married parents where divorce process deals with ... It deals with all issues of divorce, including child support and parenting time, for never married parents, these issues are disaggregated, for the orders usually only do address child support and there's no parenting time agreement or provision that happens in the juvenile court or as part of the child support procedure. They really bypass the parenting time establishment process. Today what we're going to be talking about are two different on-ramps for parenting time that two different states have pursued. [No Audio: Timeline of the Child Support Program and Parenting Time. 1975 – IV-D program created with child support and parenting time legally distinct; no 66% funding for parenting time. 1988 – OCSE funded Access and Visitation Demonstration Projects, Report to Congress in 1996 by CPR and PSL. 1996 – AV Grant Program started giving states $10 million per year for mediation, counseling, supervised visitation, parenting plans and drop-off/pick-up services (85,000 parents served/year)]. 2004 – OCSE funds grants to Integrate AV services in child support agencies in CO, TX and TN (and other states). 2011 – OCSE funded CPR to identify ways to establish parenting time in new child support orders. 2012-2015 – Obama budget proposals requires states to establish parenting time in all new child support orders and allocates $448 M over 10 years. Not passed. 2013 – OCSE sponsored PTOC projects in OH, FL, IN, OR, CA to identify establish parenting time orders and address family violence safeguards.] This timeline shows you that this is not a new conversation. Child support agencies have been wrestling with this for at least 30 years. The first IV-D child support funded program to really look at access and visitation was in 1988. In 1996, we were involved ... We authored a report to Congress that said, "Yeah. If you address parenting time, child support payments do improve. It's not a cure-all, but it doesn't mean that's perfect, but they do get better," and the Access and Visitation Grant Program was established. The first year order award was supposed to be $10 million per year. It was supposed to increase. As we know, it stayed at $10 million per year nationally. Since then OCSE has funded demonstrations to explore Section 1115 and special improvement projects to explore how to integrate access and visitation services in child support agencies. We have actually worked with both Texas and Oregon in various projects to look at their approaches and their programs. Can't go into all of the research results and all the studies, but essentially it showed that the percentage of child support paid is higher. There's more parent-child contact following these interventions, that brief interventions could be effective. We've looked at facilitations that go from 40 minutes to two hours in both Texas and Colorado, and actually in Tennessee, which shows that. We've seen consistently high rates of user satisfaction among parents who participate. [No Audio: Graphic of the average percent of Child Support Paid. The trend is that in CO, TX and TN the percent of child support paid increased after intervention.] This just shows you some of the changes in child support paid among parents who participate in interventions dealing with parenting time. Again, it doesn't make them perfect payers, but partial payers become better payers when you compare pre-imposed payment patterns for those that go through these parenting time interventions. These were mediation and facilitation interventions as compared with a business as usual comparison group. These are significant differences in payment. [No Audio: Approaches to Establishing Parenting Time in States and Local Jurisdictions. Standard parenting guidelines – standard possession order (TX, FL). Self-help – Interactive parenting plans (OR), Telephone hotline (TX, IN, KY), Virtual pro se legal clinic (CO). Mediation/Facilitation – Court and community-based (IL), IV-D agency-based (CO, OH). Comprehensive – co-parenting court (MN)] Today we identified four different approaches that states and local jurisdictions can take with establishing parenting time. We're going to be exploring two of those today. But as you think back to the early days of developing child support guidelines, we had three different approaches: percentage of net income, income shares, and the Melson. These are four different ways. Really one is a standard parenting guideline, which Texas is leader in, but some other states ... Florida has adopted it and it's used in some jurisdictions in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana. These are by statute, a court order. They're more formulaic and they establish a bit of a minimum baseline. They're self-help approaches. We're going to hear about the approach that Oregon's developed that's now an interactive parenting plan where parents can develop their own more customized parenting plan using softwares, a guided interview, that allows them to figure out what type of arrangement will work for their household. There's also a telephone hotline approach that's used in Texas, Indiana, Kentucky. Colorado's now developing a virtual legal clinic that will incorporate both an interactive parenting plan feature, as well as not quite a telephone hotline but an online legal clinic conducted via Zoom's software. A third approach is mediation/facilitation that's used in many, many jurisdictions and states, and we've examined it in Illinois, Colorado, Ohio. There's a comprehensive approach that Minnesota used that involve both parent education and mediation and other kinds of referrals and case management. That was a grant-funded program that's ended, but that is a model that is an option. It's more expensive and it hasn't been pursued as readily in other settings. We are going to hear more about these approaches, the standard parenting guideline when Ruth Anne talks, but one large advantage is that it can assist large numbers of families with no cost or delay. The chief of criticism is that it's faulted for being a one-size-fits-all approach and that it may be unsafe for victims of domestic violence. I think here are some selected features of it there. Again, Ruth Anne will give you more details about it, but it doesn't have provisions for enforcement or modification. It, on the other hand, can be customized because parents can request a different arrangement. It can be used, again, on a wide, wide basis. I think it's used with 60,000 new orders a year in Texas. It's very widely implemented. Self-help approaches can be customized and detailed. They can also, theoretically, assist large numbers of families with minimal cost and delay. Limitation is that there's low usage because it requires that parents activate or initiate. It's not a passive approach. You have to get on a website, you have to make a phone call if you're calling a hotline. That's harder to accomplish with child support population in particular. [No Audio: Selected features of Self Help and Pro Se Resources. –Programming interactive parenting plans easy and inexpensive using Odyssey Guide and File. –Hard to publicize services with target population. –Use of web-based resources may be affected by digital divide.] Again, Dawn will be talking about the features of the interactive parenting plan in Oregon, but it uses a software that conducts guided interviews, much like TurboTax where you can fill in your answers to the questions, the holidays you want designated for each parent, and other features. Mediation/facilitation has the advantage of being customized. Parents understand what their plan entails. They discuss it, they consider their options. It can be very associated with a lot of user satisfaction. It's more expensive and it can be lengthy. Again, appearance rates are challenging. In many settings, parents fail to appear, both custodial and non-custodial parents. On the other hand, once people come, there's a high rate or parenting plan production. They get agreement rates of 70% to 80%, lots of user satisfaction. The comprehensive approaches are much like that, but they're even more difficult to engage people and they're more expensive. [No Audio: Identify Domestic Violence and Implement Safety Protocols. (1) Partner with a local domestic violence agency: Review policies and procedures, develop online and printed materials, create and implement training, build referral relationships.] I think in all cases, it's important to say, all approaches, that domestic violence and safety have to be addressed in every approach. Every approach has different ways of addressing safety. I'm sure Ruth Anne will be talking about how that's done in Texas, but there you have to develop lots of ways for victims of domestic violence to raise their hand, to let it be known to child support officers, to judges, to hearing officers that there is an issue and that they need a different type of treatment, they need a safer plan. [No Audio: Identify Domestic Violence and Implement Safety Protocols. (2) Train CSE staff, judges, mediators, evaluations, and other involved: impact of DV on victims and children, coercive control and nonphysical DV, economic DV and child support, litigation.] You have to train your court staff, your child support staff and others who are involved with the problem, with the issue to be aware of domestic violence and to address that in their interactions with parents. You have to develop some safety-focused policies and procedures. [No Audio: Identify Domestic Violence and Implement Safety Protocols. (3) Establish safety- focused policies and procedures: inform and inquire about safety at multiple points of application and processing, invite disclosure at multiple points of application and processing, ensure victims can opt out, ensure safety-focused tools are affordable and accessible (e.g., supervised visitation).] Oregon has a whole separate track or a whole separate parenting plan option that focuses on safety planning and plans that call for different procedures to enhance safety. Victims can opt out of procedures. You want to invite disclosure at multiple points of application and processing. Safety can be addressed in any approach. [No Audio: A range of identification methods are critical across all approaches. Standard - Self- help – Mediation - Comprehensive: Universal notification, separate screening, self-disclosure, safety stragegies.] Really, if you are using a standard parenting time plan, as Texas does, you want to pursue universal notification to parents about the problem of domestic violence and invite disclosure. Likewise, with self-help approach that Oregon's developing, you also want to universally notify parents that this is going to be a problem, that safety is an issue they should be aware of, and give them a track for them to develop plans that are more consistent with their needs. [No Audio: Family Court Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 2015 Special Issue 53(2): Parenting Time & Co-Parenting for Unmarried Parents.] For more information, I invite you to look at the Family Court Review journal issue that Ellen mentioned. There are articles about parenting time and the Texas plan approach and other approaches, as well as safety in that issue. Also, visit FRPN.org where there are materials about this issue. [No Audio: Conclusions. CSE programs are large, complex, highly automated with limited identification and referral activity by CSE personnel. Child support populations can be difficult to engage and serve – less demand for parenting time services than anticipated.] Last, in conclusion, before I'm going to turn this over to the next speaker, I think it's important to keep in mind that while these services don't qualify for FFP and relatively few jurisdictions do help, parents do face cumbersome problems establishing parenting time in child support cases and steep court filing fees if they pursue separate legal actions, child support populations can be very difficult to engage in service. There's less demand for parenting time services than we anticipated. It's not something that everyone wants, but parents do want it, and they're frustrated, throwing them into the court system and saying, "Go to court," is not always a solution because family court programs are oversubscribed and underfunded. AV grant program funds may be committed to other populations and not go far enough. Domestic violence and safety risks are present whether or not there are parenting time plans. They represent serious service delivery challenges. But we do know that children do better if they have positive relationships with nonresident fathers. Perceived fairness and payments improved if parenting time is addressed. We have not seen the problems of delay develop that had been feared when parenting time is addressed. Some jurisdictions have that found effective ways to address parenting time. On to Ruth Anne and Parenting Time in Texas. [No Audio: Parenting Time in Texas. Ruth Anne Thornton, Chief of Staff, Texas Office of the Attorney General – Child Support Division. Ruth.Thornton@oag.texas.gov] Ruth Anne: Thank you so much, Jessica, and thank you all for being here. I want to talk first a little bit about what Texas does and does not do regarding parenting time, just to give you an overview. The Texas IV-D program, as Jessica alluded to, has been universally, including parenting plans in our child support orders, and we've been doing so for about 30 years, so as long as this conversation has been going. This has been a longstanding arrangement. This is made possible, in large part, due to a couple of things. First being strong public policy and a system of statutes, which I'll talk about in detail, and what I consider to be innovative agency policy and outreach strategies. As you can see, "It's the public policy of the State of Texas to encourage frequent contact between a child and each parent for periods of possession that optimize the development of a close and continuing relationship between each parent and child…" That is enshrined in our Texas Family Code. [No Audio: Texas Family Code 153.251(b)] This principle is further reflected and elaborated upon in IV-D agency policy. It's the policy of the IV-D agency in Texas that assuring children have frequent and continuing contact with their parents, providing safe, stable, and non-violent environment for children, and encouraging parents to share in the rights and duties of raising children. It's not only in parents' and children's best interest, but in the state's best interest as well. [No Audio: IV-D Agency Policy. –If visitation is contested, the parties are encouraged to seek mediation, and/or hire an attorney. –The OAG website provides an Access and Visitation online directory of local community and governmental services. –Disputes regarding possession/visitation orders are referred to a district court (non IV-D court).] But we do not provide dispute resolution services. I just want to be clear that if visitation is contested, parents are encouraged to seek private counsel or to seek mediation services. Also, importantly, if we're midstream in the event of a dispute, our IV-D associate judges are able ... They have the ability to enter a temporary child support order and refer the case to the appropriate trial court for final resolution of the visitation dispute. [No Audio: Evolution of Parenting Time in Texas. 1975: IV-D Program created. 1979: Texas Legislature replaces “visitation” with “possession and access” and amends Texas Family Code to allow “joint custody”. 1983: IV-D program moved to Texas OAG, Legislature passes permissive laws allowing courts to promulgate advisory guidelines regarding both child support and visitation. Most courts did not. 1984: Congress mandates that by October 1, 1987, states develop guidelines for determining appropriate child support obligation amounts. 1989: Texas Legislature moved forward with not only the required child support guidelies, but also the statutory presumptive visitation guidelines. 1996: AV Grant Program. 2003: Texas establishes the Access and Visitation Hotline.] I wanted to expand on Jessica's timeline a little bit, or just maybe reframe it from the Texas perspective. We're going to go all the way back to the late '60s, early '70s. In 1969, the rules regarding the parent-child relationship at the time were established through case law rather than statute. What that meant was that custody and visitation issues were really left to the discretion of the trial judiciary. But then in 1975, when Congress established the state federal IV-D program, the Texas legislature, like legislatures across the country, began to look a little bit more closely at issues related to child custody, visitation, and support from the legislative perspective. At about the same time, the family law section of the Texas State Bar was working collaboratively with the Texas Legislative Council, which is the drafting wing of the Texas legislature, to develop a standalone family code separate and apart from existing civil statutes. Just a little fun fact, in 1975, the chapter 14 of the code, which was conservatorship, possession, and support of children, was only seven pages long. By 1981, it was up to eight and a quarter pages. Today those same issues are addressed in over 200 pages of law. Just a little tidbit for you. The family code provisions related to child custody and visitation were developed with input from members of the legislature, the private bar, and, importantly, also lobby groups, particularly those representing the interests of fathers. One of the more noteworthy considerations or pieces of feedback that was received from those groups was the perspective that, "I am not a visitor in my child's life." As a result of that feedback, the legislature moved in 1979 to use the terms "possession of and access to" a child in Texas law rather than visitation. In our program, you'll also hear us talk about parenting time or shared parenting. That said, most folks, including lawyers in Texas, still often use custody and visitation colloquially and interchangeably since that's what most folks understand, along with the correct legal terms. You'll hear me do the same thing. There are a couple other unique terms and concepts in Texas Family Law that I'll go over in detail a little bit more shortly. In 1982, there was actually a Blue Ribbon Committee of citizens formed, led by a member of the Texas Legislature, Betty Andujar, who was the first woman ever to serve in the Texas Senate. That committee's charge was to study code provisions in case laws affecting child support custody and visitation. Again, you'll continue to see a theme that these issues are examined and addressed in Texas Family Law as a system together rather than separately. Her committee made a recommendation to the Texas Legislature that not only should courts, by local rule, be permitted to promulgate advisory guidelines regarding child support and visitation, but that unless good cause existed to the contrary, possession of and access to a child needed to be specific. The old standard or the old fallback language of reasonable visitation, which often amounted to no visitation at all, was deemed insufficient. That was codified in the 1983 Texas legislative session. Then, in 1984, Congress mandates that by 1987, states needed to develop child support guidelines and make those available to judges and other decision makers responsible for setting support amounts. Then, in 1988, those discretionary guidelines were made mandatory by the Family Support Act. It's against that backdrop of things happening, both at the local court, local rule level, and at the federal level, that the Texas legislature in 1989 move forward with the required child support guidelines and presumptive visitation guidelines in the form of the standard possession order. More to come on that shortly. As you would imagine, the bill that enacted or that was the vehicle for the creation of the standard possession order went through many series of lengthy amendments. It was actually one of the first bills filed that session and one of the very last to make it to the governor's desk for signatures. It was the subject of a lot of work and a lot of debate over the course of that session. This history, going back really even beyond the inception of the IV-D program is maybe a little more than you were expecting to hear about how Texas does parenting time in 2017, but the point is, I think for us, the way our state handles parenting time has been evolutionary. It's not about one bill or one statute, but rather a system of statutes, including our child support guidelines, that really work together and compliment one another. The fact remains that child support and parenting time are legally separate matters, but that technical reality is not only in conflict with parents' real life experiences, but I think it's somewhat belied by the evolution of this body of law. The system of statutes that I'm talking about really encompasses a significant portion of the Texas Family Code as it relates to the parent-child relationship. What I'm going to talk you through include our guidelines as it relates to parenting time, the requirements of a final order in Texas, the concept of joint managing conservatorship, our standard possession order, the rebuttals to those presumed standards, and exceptions for specific circumstances such as family violence or children under the age of three. First, to reiterate, the family code states explicitly that the issues of possession and access and child support are not contingent upon one another. In fact, such an arrangement is forbidden. Put another way, spending time with one's child is a right, not a duty and supporting one's child is a duty, but you're not paying for the ability to parent your child. Texas child support guidelines are a key element in this system. Our guidelines are simple and straightforward. Our model is the income or the obligor net resources model. Our child support guidelines are based on a percentage of obligor's net resources. Unlike in many states, the number of days that an NC, a non-custodial parent, is expected to spend with his or her child is not factored into the calculation. However, within our child support guidelines, I do think it's important to point out that the law does allow courts to deviate from the guidelines if evidence rebuts the presumption that that amount would be in the best interest of the child. One of the factors that the court has to consider is the amount of time of possession of and access to a child. A theme that you'll see throughout my remarks is this presumed standard with flexibility for courts when families have a specific circumstance or situation. I also mentioned that the requirements of our final orders are an important key. If you've heard Texas present on this topic before, you have no doubt heard as discussed the fact that state law requires that in all final orders in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship, those orders must include a parenting plan. This is that piece of the puzzle. There are exceptions to this, but, generally speaking, under Texas law, our courts could not establish a final child support order without also addressing conservatorship, commonly known as custody, and possession and access time. This is true whether the order is established through a private divorce, a private action to establish the parent-child relationship, or an action brought to establish a child support order in a case handled by our office. I'm sure that begs the question: how do we do that? Aren't these hot button issues for families? Of course, the answer is yes, but we have a couple of concepts in Texas law, and presumptions related to those concepts, that allow this to be a relatively simple process for families while still maintaining their autonomy to agree upon other arrangements. Remember, of course, that contested cases are referred to an appropriate trial court for final orders. The first of these concepts I want to talk briefly about is that of joint managing conservatorship. I need to point out here that conservatorship under Texas law and the word "custody", as many parents understand it, are not necessarily the same thing. Put simply, conservatorship is a set of rights and duties. Joint managing conservatorship, in a very basic way, means that both parents have essentially the same rights in decision making authority regarding the child's upbringing with one key exception: one parent is designated the custodial parent and retains their exclusive right to determine the child's residence. It is important to point out that joint managing conservatorship does not mean there is a 50-50 split of time with the child. That is addressed totally separately. Joint managing conservatorship is by far the most common arrangement for parents regarding conservatorship in Texas, but you may also see someone named the sole managing conservator, especially in a case involving family violence or abuse. More to come on that later. I've got a couple of slides here with examples of the language in our orders both in the case of conservatorship in the standard possession order, the language in our orders tracks the statute exactly word-for-word. The standard possession order, Texas law outlines a statutory standard possession order that is rebuttably presumed to be in the best interest of the child. The most important aspect of the standard possession order, though, and Jessica alluded to this earlier, and I think the element to which its success is likely most attributable, is the very first line. The standard possession order first specifies that parents “may have possession of the child at all times mutually agreed to in advance by the parties…” [No Audio: Texas Family Code 153.311]. Parties can agree to change this schedule in any way that suits them. The standard possession order is intended to be a backup in the event that mutual agreement fails or is rescinded. [No Audio: A graphic showing the Standard Possession Order.] Of course, for those parents who are unable to reach mutual agreement at all, the standard possession order serves as a fallback arrangement and guarantees that each parent has a legally enforceable right to spend time with his or her child regardless of the other parent's agreement. I think Jessica also mentioned that the SPO allows for parenting time the first, third, and fifth weekends of the month, for a couple of hours every Thursday evening, on alternating holidays, and at least one month in the summer. Since its introduction in 1989, the standard possession order has remained substantively unchanged. I think the only significant change has been that the midweek visit was moved from Wednesday to Thursday. I believe the intent behind that was to encourage perhaps more time with the non-custodial parent if it works out and they're able to just continue that Thursday into the weekend. A couple more slides showing a little bit of the language in the standard possession order and some of the principles around that, including that all children in a family should visit together. Of course, we said that the standard order is presumed to be in the best interest of the child. The order should be adjusted for children under the age of three. Any variation from the standard order, there should be some documentation from the court stating the reasons for that variance. I remember that I've mentioned earlier the presumptions for the joint managing conservatorship and the standard possession order are rebuttable. Perhaps the most common reason these presumptions are rebutted is that one parent has committed family violence against the other. In fact, that's mentioned specifically in the statute around joint managing conservatorship and mentioned separately in other areas of the statute regarding the standard possession order. Over the years, probably the question I have personally answered the most regarding how the Texas IV-D program handles parenting time really does center on the issue of family violence, as Jessica mentioned. How can you establish parenting time using a standard order presumed to be in the best interest of the child and maintain safety for victims and their children? That's an issue and a subject that's near and dear to my heart. My experience before I became the chief of staff for the Texas IV-D program was managing our collaboration on this particular issue, on family violence and safety, in our process in our programs. First, I need to point out that the court must consider the commission of family violence or sexual abuse in determining whether to deny, restrict, or limit the possession of a child by a non-custodial parent. Further, the court is expressly prohibited from granting access to a child when there has been recent violence or abuse, unless the order protects the safety of both the child and any other affected person. Often the way that courts addressed this is by either including protective provisions such as supervised visitation or neutral exchange in the parenting time orders and safety concerns, or the court may deny visitation entirely depending upon the circumstances. I also want to mention that since 2005, the child support division had had an extensive collaborative relationship with our statewide domestic violence coalition, the Texas Council on Family Violence, partly in recognition of the fact that child support and parenting time both can present or raise safety concerns for survivors. We've worked closely with them for over a decade now to assess and revise our policies, practices, training, and resources to make sure that our process is as safe as it can be for survivors of family violence. Our aim is to educate all of our customers regardless of whether or not they've disclosed safety concerns about our processes, encourage disclosure of safety concerns, and raise awareness about family violence dynamics and protections that exist within the order establishment process to address or mitigate those concerns. A couple more statutes related to family violence. The other common exception to the application of the standard possession order is when the child who's the subject of dispute is under the age of three. In those cases, the court must consider several factors in establishing an appropriate parenting time order. There are several. [No Audio: Children Under Three. Factors to consider (among others): the caregiving provided to the child before and during the current suit, the effect on the child that may result from separation from either party, the availability of the parties as caregivers and the willingness of the parties to personally care for the child, the presence of siblings during periods of possession, the child’s need for continuity of routine, any other evidence of the best interest of the child.] You can read them on the slide, things like the physical, medical, and behavioral and developmental needs of the child, the caregiving provided to the child before and during the current suit, and really any other evidence that informs the best interest of the child. One of the ways that courts will often ... Both actually in cases of family violence or children under three, sometimes the court will introduce what's called a warm up or step up visitation, where visitation may start out supervised and then progress to the standard possession order, depending upon the non-custodial parent's completion of certain benchmarks. The first four visits may be supervised. They become increasingly unsupervised and lengthier as time goes on, working up to the standard possession order. Beyond, though, the Texas public policy statutes and agency practices, the final, but maybe even the most important element that I think has contributed to our success in this area, is the way that we've leveraged state and federal funds and relationships with local service providers to amplify our ability to communicate with our customers effectively about parenting time orders. Texas is one of several states that has its federal Access and Visitation Grant award flow through the IV-D agency for administration. We actually have one grant-funded full-time employee on staff who oversees those programs and initiatives. Beyond the dollars, we've also been able to obtain those specific dollars. We've also been able to obtain other federal demonstration grant funding and have dedicated state appropriations, which, as Jessica mentioned, are non-eligible for federal financial participation to augment the Texas shared parenting program. The initiative administered under that program include funding for local program services to increase non-custodial parenting time, but the biggest probably bang for our buck, so to speak, has been in the programs and materials we've developed to make sure that our child support staff aren't having to spend their time explaining parenting plans or discussing parenting time issues. For example, the Access and Visitation Hotline has been a huge customer service boon for our staff. When a frustrated non-custodial parent calls upset because he or she has not been able to see their child, our staff don't have to say, "I'm sorry, I can't help you with that," they have resources they can point to. That's just classic customer service. "I may not be the person to best assist you with that, but let me get you in touch with someone who can help." We publicize the Access and Visitation Hotline phone number on nearly all of our outward- facing materials, including pre-court or pre-negotiation conference notices, which is our know- before-you-go form. [No Audio: Image of the “Know Before You Go- Child Support Court Guide”] [No Audio: Image of the “My Sticker Calendar”] We also had the award-winning My Sticker Calendar that has been a significant investment, but a significant impact for our customers in helping our parents better understand their parenting time order. It's got a fun, approachable design and stickers that kids can use to note when they'll be at mom's house, when they'll be at dad's house, holidays, and so on. [No Audio: Image of the TX Access website] Then, finally, www.txaccess.org serves as a companion to the Access and Visitation Hotline. It has recently gone through a facelift, and we're very proud of its easy-to-navigate design, user- friendly language. It's another way or another avenue that we can help parents or point parents in the right direction to helping them understand the terms of their order or, in advance of even getting the order, what's going to happen in the process as they move forward. To conclude, there's not one thing I could point to as being exclusively responsible for or critical to our ability to leave the establishment of parenting plans into a IV-D program with a caseload the size of Texas, but I do hope that our experience and that history that I've shared can maybe help illuminate some possibilities in your jurisdiction. With that, I will turn it over to Dawn. [No Audio: Child Support and Interactive Parenting Plans in Oregon. Dawn M. Marquardt, Deputy Director and Policy Section Chief, Oregon Department of Justice. dawn.marquardt@doj.state.or.us , 503-947-4388] Dawn Marquardt: Thank you, Ruth Anne. I'm going to talk a little bit about some background information on child support in Oregon. Then we're going to actually do a demo of the interactive parenting plan that was developed here. In Oregon, the Oregon Child Support Program consists of the Division of Child Support and county district attorney offices. We have a little bit unusual situation where there's 36 counties in Oregon. In all 36 of those, if there is an assignment to the state due to the receipt of public assistance, those cases are handled by the Oregon Department of Justice, Division of Child Support. If there is not assistance, as of October 1st, in 23 of the 36 counties, the district attorney's office handles the non-assistance cases in the 13 counties; where the district attorney's office doesn't handle it, the Division of Child Support does. The Division of child support handles all of the public assistance cases where there's an assignment and then, in the 13 counties where the district attorneys have elected not to provide services, we handle all of the child support cases in those counties. Most child support orders established or modified by the child support program are obtained administratively. We do have ... Set forth in statute under Oregon Revised Statutes 25.080(4), sets forth the child support related activities that the program may take. Those are limited to establishing paternity, establishing, modifying, and enforcing child support and medical support, and then enforcing spousal support. The State of Oregon's policy [No Audio: ORS 107.101] regarding parenting is set forth in statute as well. It's that to assure children of frequent and continuing contact with parents, to encourage parents to share in rights and responsibilities, to encourage parents to develop their own plan with assistance, if necessary, to grant parents and courts wide discretion in developing a plan, and to consider the best interests of children safety of the parties. In any proceeding to establish or modify a judgment for parenting time, there must be a parenting plan. There is an exception for abuse cases. The plans can be general or they can be detailed, but they must set forth the minimum amount of parenting time and access that the non-custodial parent is entitled to. Now when I'm talking about parenting time, I'm talking about when the children are in the care of each parent. That's what parenting time means in Oregon. Custody is the decision making, who gets to make the major decision. For the purposes of the presentation today, all of us, when we're talking about parenting time, it's who'll have the children when. Those terms vary state-by-state of is it custody, is it visitation, is it placement. There can be a little bit of variety, but for our purposes, decision making is custody and parenting time is who has the child at what time. Oregon's child support guidelines take into account parenting time. Although child support orders taken by the program do not include an order for parenting time, the child support calculation takes into an account an order for parenting time or a written agreement that's been signed by both parties. That's pursuant to our administrative rule. The child support program can only use the court ordered parenting time or the agreement signed by both parents when they're calculating a child support credit related to parenting time. If there's no written parenting time agreement or court order, the parent with primary physical custody will be treated as having all parenting time. If there is a contested child support hearing, a court or administrative law judge can determine the actual parenting time is different than what's in the written plan. They can use that for the calculation of parenting time that's being exercised by the parents. The difference is that for the child support program, when we are proposing an administrative order for the parties, we send it out based on either what that written court order is or what the signed agreement from the parties is about who has how much time. We don't have the discretion to say, "Oh, we understand you're not following that." That's not something that we can do. If they don't agree with our proposed calculation, they can say, "I want a hearing," and then the administrative law judge has the authority to do that. What is an interactive parenting plan and how did Oregon get one? It's an online self-guided interview process that allows users to create a customized parenting plan. Here in Oregon, we're using the Odyssey Guide and File tool. It started a long time ago with a group of interested stakeholders starting the process and creating a walkthrough based on standardized parenting plans. The group that was involved is part of our state family law advisory committee that consists of judges, mediators, domestic violence advocates, legal aid representatives, child support representative, family law attorneys, and court staff. They sat down and reviewed a variety of plans; some were based on the age of children, the distance between households, and specifically by that I mean if they lived more than 60 miles apart, and if there were any safety issues. They developed the questions and logic flow that parents would need to answer to arrive at a customized parenting plan. They compiled a list of resources that they thought would be helpful to parents. Our interactive parenting plan is accessed through the Oregon Judicial Department's website. Users can create a free account where they can save the plan and they can return later for up to 90 days. [No Audio: https://oregon.tylerhost.net/SRL/SRL/# ] At this point, this is the link where you can get to to get directly to the interactive parenting plan. We're going to switch at this point and actually do a live demo, assuming that my internet connection works. At this point we're ready to switch over. Hopefully you can see my screen. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website homepage.] When you bring up the URL, this is what comes up. For the parenting plan, you click on Parenting Plan. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. User selects “Parenting Plan” under “Start a New Filing Interview] Then this brings up this welcome. It tells people what a parenting plan is. It says that it's the agreement of when each parent is going to see the children and it can include other things about their care. It can deal with things like the exchange, transportation, communication, daycare, babysitters, and those type of things. Here it says if you click here you can get a PDF to help you walkthrough some of the things you should consider before you do the interview. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. Welcome to the Guide and File Parenting Plan Interview page. User selects the “click here” link in the welcome, the user then navigates to an open tab with a document titled “How Do I Get Started?”] On this page, it, again, tells them a little bit more about the parenting plan, telling them that conflict between the parents makes it harder for a child to adjust. It gives them some tips. Then it actually has some questions that it's helpful for parents to think about before they start working on the parenting plan, but it's just an additional resource that they can think about before they get started. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. User navigates to the previously opened tab, Welcome to the Guide and File Parenting Plan Interview start page.] Back to the interview process, over on the right-hand side, there are resources. There's the family law website, there's safety resources, there's just general information about using the interview. Then it tells them, again, the parenting plan can be general or detailed. If you're using it for part of a court case, it must have at least the minimum amount of time that will be with each parent. It's a reminder that parenting plans are not permanent and they need to change it as children develop and grow and the circumstances change. Then it also tells them this isn't a complete statement of law. We try to have a basic reading level that doesn't require even a high school education when we write these things, but sometimes it doesn't always work out that way. They can click Next whenever they're ready to move on. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. User selects the “Next” button at the bottom of the Welcome screen. The Introduction screen displays.] Again, it's a reminder that there's not a standard parenting plan. It tells them how to create an account. There's some information on navigating. The way that it works is there's the Go To menu. In this particular case, we're on the third page. We've already done the start page, the welcome, and the introduction. One of the nice things, I think, is that you can't jump ahead past the page. On Go To, you can only go back to the pages that you've already been at. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. User selects the “Next” button at the bottom of the Introduction screen. The Resources screen displays.] Then as you click Next, each time an additional page is added there, but at least people can't accidentally skip over a section. They have to at least get through it the first time before they can move on. Again, it has more information on the family law program, mediation that they might be able to work through a mediator. Then it tells them there's financial considerations involved in making a parenting time plan, specifically it even links them to the child support calculator because, again, in Oregon, our calculator factors in parenting time. I'm not going to click on that now because it'll just slow us down, but this is a website that you can all get to and go play with it on your own should you choose. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. User selects the “Next” button at the bottom of the Resources screen. The Safety screen displays.] We have a lot of safety information included in the plan. This is just a general reminder that if you're using the computer, people can check out your activity. If you have any of those risks, you should figure out how to erase your browser and learn more about safety in technology here. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. User selects the “Next” button at the bottom of the Safety screen. The Safety Concerns screen displays.] Then it's the warning of if you have a safety concern, you can ask the court for special limits on parenting time. It's telling them a parenting plan is not a protective order. If you fear abuse, you should talk to an advocate. It's directing them to the safety resources again. If they feel unsafe, they should consider making a safety-focused plan. Now we're getting to the actual parts of the plan that are more interactive. "Would you like to see some questions that can help you decide whether you should consider a safety-focused parenting plan, yes or no?" If they click no, then it just says, "Do you want to make a safety- focused plan?" If they click yes, then it brings up specific questions about does the other parent damage or destroy property, make you feel afraid, all of those types of things. Then it says, "If you answered yes to any one of these questions, please consider a safety- focused plan." It also, again, reminds them that they should maybe consider speaking to a domestic violence advocate. Again, giving more examples of what might be safety issues. Up here we said, yes, we wanted to see more. If you change it back to no, you still have the option of do you want to make a safety-focused plan or not? For the purposes of today's walkthrough, we are going to focus on the safety-focused plan, so I'm going to say yes. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. Safety Concerns screen. User selects “no” on the question “Do you want to make a safety focused plan?” then clicks Next. An Introduction screen takes a few seconds to load.] Again, because this is the safety-focused plan, it does tell them that in order for this to be enforceable, it has to be attached to a court case. That might be a family abuse prevention restraining order. Again, it's pointing out that all children benefit from a consistent and predictable schedule, which a lot of times we find that people don't necessarily understand what the benefit is. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. The user clicks next and is taken to a Resources screen.] In our experience in Oregon, particularly in cases when we were dealing with moms who had primary placement, or a parent that had all the parenting time, they maybe weren't interested in giving time to dad, even if it wasn't a safety-focused issue. We found, to try and get them interested in it, we had to really try and sell them on the benefits of, "Your children benefit from that time, you benefit from having some time to yourself," and all of those things. But if you're the person that has all the time and maybe isn't interested in giving it to the other parent, it's nice to have little reminders in there about what the benefits might be. Again, because this is a safety-focused one, it has another reminder there. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. The user clicks next and is taken to the Filing Parent’s Information screen.] There are still the resources over here on the right-hand side. This is the point where they fill in their information. This will actually be included in the plan. When they use terminology in there, it'll actually use the names so that it's a little more customized to them. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. The user fills in the first and last name fields for the Parent, clicks Next, then fills in the same fields for Other Parent’s name.] I'm just filling in names here. I'm going to say that they do not currently live together, but you can see I put in that dad was David Daddy so it's saying, "Do you and David currently live together?" I'm going to say no. Then based upon that, it asks, "Do the children live with one parent more than half of the time, or is it about 50-50?" I'm going to say yes and that they live with Maggie, who's the mom, which is the person completing the plan. Then it asks, "How many minor children do you have?" Based on how many I fill in here, it will populate more information about the names, but I'm just going to say one for time. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. The user adds the name Precious Child to the Child’s Full Name field and continues to fill out basic information about the child.] I've actually seen this was the name for a child when I was working child support cases. We kept a list at one point of some of the good names we got, but every child is precious, so that's helpful. The way they had this setup is that you can't enter the age of a child that isn't born yet. You'll see that you probably wouldn't be making a plan for a child that was just born today, so you can't mess up and go into the future. I'm just going to say that this child was born on September 13th, 2009. Based upon that, it populates the age, so we don't have to worry about whether people can do the math. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. The user clicks next and is taken to the Intro to Plan Options screen. The user is asked “which Plan do you want to create? Overnight parenting time, Limited parenting time with no overnights, or Supervised parenting time”] This part is specific to the safety-focused plan. It tells them, again, what an overnight visit would be, what no overnights, and what supervised would be. It explains that the child can safely spend time with David. This plan allows for overnight parenting time. The child or children can safely spend time with David for limited periods of time, but not overnight, or supervision would be the children cannot be safe alone with him. This plan has parenting time under supervision only. Then based upon that, which kind do they want to create. I'm going to go with the overnight parenting plan. Then it tells them that this is going to be the regular schedule when David has the children. Maybe we'll have them at all other times. They're going to start with the weekend schedule. It gives them a hint that many families find alternating every other weekend works. Then it even tells them that the parts in bold is going to be what they can customize. Let me come down here. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. Overnights screen. User selects “I want to start with an every other week weekend schedule.” The screen then changes to ask which day and time the weekend should begin and end.] If they want to do every other weekend, they would select that. It lets them pick when the weekend's going to start, both the day and the time, and when it's going to end. They could do specific weekends to alternate. It fills that out. Then, again, they would click on that, or if you select I want to make my own schedule, it'll actually give them a box to type into. I'm going to go with the standard every other weekend. I'm just going to have it be Friday, if I can type, at 5:00 p.m. to Sunday at 5:00 p.m. Then it gets into exchanging the children. If the parents haven't thought about this, it mentions a neutral site. That can help minimize the stress or the safety. It gives them a little bit of information. Then, again, it tell them that down here. They can specify more than one place or they can even say, "I don't know." In this case, I'm going to say that the exchange is going to be at the Salem Library. Then they pick who's going to transport the kids as well and points out that it should be someone that the children know and trust. It can be I'm going to transport them, I don't know yet, or the person named below. If they select the person named below, then they must fill in a name. In this case, I'm just going to do I will transport them, but it still gives them the backup option. I'm not going to fill one in here. Then transportation, this should be a given, but it points out that the plan's going to stay that the children should not ride in the car unless the driver has a valid driver's license, auto insurance, seat belts, and any required safety seats. It should be a given, but we all know that that's not always the case. [No Audio: OJD Guide and File website. Overnights screen. User selects plan options on the Exchange screen, click Next and is taken to the Holidays screen.] Then it walks them through, "Oh, do you want something special for the holidays?" If I click yes, then it gives me a dropdown. If I click no, it wouldn't. I'm going to say Christmas, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. I'm not going to do anything for Easter. Then would you like to include extra parenting time during school vacations? If you say no, then it would skip over that. If I say yes, then the next page is going to bring up the school vacation information. They're talking first about winter and spring break. Summer's going to be handled separately. They give some suggestions when parents are going to have them for the first half of the break or you're going to do a long weekend or other choices. In this case, I'm going to do half. I'm actually going to copy that and I'm going to say, "Yes, I want to add it." Then they do actually tell you here that you can copy and paste something from up there, which can help the parents get the wording right or they can type in their own. I'm not going to do anything specific for spring break. Then it's reminding them that summer vacation is a long break in the school calendar. You can either keep the regular schedule or you can do something specific. Then, again, it gives them ideas: alternate weeks, dad gets an extra week per month, or maybe he gets a full month. I'm going to do one weekend a month for the purposes of this one. Then click yes so that it actually drops down. Again, I could've typed in something completely different without copying and pasting, but you've seen my typing already, so I'll try to limit my typos. Then we get to daycare and babysitting. Again, it's using David because that's what I entered as the name of the parent that doesn't have at least half. It includes the reminder that no children under the age of 10 will be left unsupervised. If daycare or babysitting's required, there's the option of David will notify Maggie of the name, location, and contact information, or he's only going to use an approved provider. If I select that, then I have to actually type them in. I'm just going to go with notify the name and location. Then it talks about the right of first refusal. The way this is worded right now is that it's specific to temporary overnight care needed. Each state handles that differently, but, for the purposes of this agreement, it's talking about overnight care. I'm not going to include it here. Then it goes through access to activities and events. Again, it's a reminder that it's important for both parents to be involved in the children's lives as much as possible, but then still pointing out that the court can limit contact for safety. It gives an example of what the language might look like. David may attend the sports activities and school events. At these gatherings, he must not approach within 20 feet of Maggie. Then the reminder that both parents should treat each other in a courteous and positive manner, or they suggest that it could be that you must be notified in advance if they're going to attend the meeting or event. That might be so that they could make sure that they have a friend with them, or maybe they'd choose not to attend, but they can at least make sure that they're safe. In this one, you can either pick either one of those or both. I'm just going to select stay 20 feet away. Then it talks about communication with the children. It doesn't necessarily have to be any limitation, but if you know there's safety issues, it'd probably help that they have some. If you select may contact when this follows, then you have to fill that in. It might be texting during certain hours, calling at 7:00 or something like that. I'm going to do the that he can call, write, or email the children as that option. Then, again, it has what the parent-to-parent communication could be. Particularly helpful if there happens to be a restraining order in place. A lot of times having a parenting plan that addresses this would allow the parties to do an amendment to the restraining order, or if this was attached to some other court case, it would just allow that to happen. It's phone, in writing at a contact address, email, other. Other could be text or something like that. I'm going to do email. Then it even has do you want to limit the communications to any of these topics? Emergency relating to the children, issues relating to the children, or changes to the parenting plan. In this case, I'm just going to say issues relating to the children. Then it has a reminder that if this is filed with the court, there can be certain safety rules included in the plan. Because this is a safety-based one, it talks about no firearms. These are ones that they could select. The children won't be physically disciplined; David won't be under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs. If there happened to be anyone else who might be a danger to the children, that they wouldn't be present during the parenting time. I'm just going to go with no firearms present. Then if the parties need something else, this is another opportunity to throw in any other rules that they might need: neither parent is to make negative comments, he's not to ask the children about Maggie's address, he's not to interfere with their mental health services, not to take them out of state without permission, return all the clothing, all of those types of things. Again, this can be cut and pasted into this box or they can type in their own. I'm just going to do let's not make negative comments. Changes to the parenting plan. This is a reminder that no parenting plan is permanent. It actually tells them, if the other parent doesn't agree, how they could go about requesting a modification, telling them where they could get the forms. Then the key for child support purposes is telling them that in some circumstances both parents are required to sign the parenting plan. If they're going to submit to child support for a child support order, they must sign it. Either of these circumstances apply. I'm going to say yes. This is what creates a signature line on the form for the parties. Again, there's a general safety reminder in here. Clearing the history and all of that. The interview is now complete. They would click proceed to either view it or download it. I'm just going to view it quickly so you can see what the output looks like. I'm out of time, but they'll allow me to take another minute or two. Again, it has the filer's name, the other parent's name, child's name and age, where the child lives more than half the time. It has the language for the regular schedule. David's going to have every other weekend. It filled in the Christmas time, filled in winter break, which it has duplicate winter break and summer vacation right now. It's actually a glitch that OJD is working on. It has all of that in there. Then it has the exchange and transportation information, access to activities and events, communication with the children, communication between the parties, the daycare, the child safety rule, other parenting time rules. Again, the reminder about changes to the plan and that this doesn't become part of a court order until it's signed by the court. Then there's the place for both parties to sign. This is what our safety-based one looks like. There is also options for young children. It has different schedules involved. Then, additionally, we do have, for the long distance plans, more than 60 miles. When we go through those options, they have more detail involved. Then they put in the safety plan. I think at the time they thought it was best to just limit it to certain things. I wasn't in Oregon at the time that they did the initial work, but if you go through the plan and choose a nonsafety- focused plan, then you have the other options. If you have multiple children, you can do a different schedule for each child. There's just a lot of options there. With that, that wraps up my demo. At this point, [inaudible 01:12:58] that Ellen has a few questions for us. [No Audio: Image with Questions? And a magnifying glass] Ellen Rutledge: Thanks, Dawn. We do have some questions. We've had one from the audience, and both you and Ruth Anne have touched on this, but I thought maybe I could just have you clarify it for everybody really quick. Our question states: "We're interested in clearly understanding the term "parenting time" and whether parenting time refers to just visitation and not custody." Again, I believe I heard you both talk about this, but just to clarify, I thought maybe Ruth Anne could start and briefly go through Texas and then, Dawn, you could also, again, go back and tell us how Oregon addresses that, because I think they're a little bit different. Ruth Anne: Sure. This is Ruth Anne. I agree with what Dawn mentioned that, for our purposes, colloquially, parenting time is talking about the time that the child or children is with one parent or the other, or the time that that parent has access to and possession of the children. Custody or, as we call it, conservatorship is really about those decision making rights and roles and responsibilities. They're loosely related, but they're really separate things. You could have someone be a joint managing conservator, but that doesn't necessarily have any bearing on the amount of parenting time that they are granted or that they and the other parent come to an agreement on. I think, in that way, we may actually be very similar, Oregon and Texas, but when we're talking about parenting time here, we're really talking about that access and possession time. Ellen Rutledge: Dawn, you want to follow up with [inaudible 01:14:50]? Dawn Marquardt: Yeah, sure. Yes. In Oregon, parenting time, again, is about when the children are in the care of each parent and custody is the major decision making on things like the child's religion, education, health, those types of things. Parenting time is who has the child at each time. Ellen Rutledge: Okay. I want to remind everybody, if you do have a question, you can type it into that question and answer block on your screen. Then if you hit I think it was enter or Submit, maybe there's a button there, then we can see that and we can ask our presenters your questions. Another piece of follow up, and Jessica, this might start with you and then it'd be for Ruth Anne and Dawn as well. Could you talk a little bit about any evaluation that's been done on this parenting programs, maybe how you do it? I believe you've actually been involved in some of that for Texas and Oregon? Jessica Pearson: Yes. Ellen Rutledge: Maybe [inaudible 01:15:49]. Jessica Pearson: Actually, we've done work in both Texas and Oregon, but, in a way, we have opposite challenges in both places. In Texas, standard parenting plan arrangements, as Ruth Anne points out, have been around for more than 30 years. They're wallpaper. You can't randomly assign some families to getting it or not getting it. Everyone gets it. In Texas, what we have evaluated is a hotline, which is an important feature of the plan. We did studies both in 2004 and 2008 where we followed up with a random selection of 132 callers from 2004 and 400 callers in 2008. We checked in with them three months after they had called the hotline. We analyze why they called and what they thought of what they got. I think it's fair to say that most non-custodial parents call to see what they can do if a custodial parent doesn't let them visit. More than half of all callers say it definitely or probably helped and 78% to 80% would use the hotline again, but many of them say the problem wasn't fully solved. They really wanted more active help; not just information, but they wanted somebody to help them. They want more legal help or legal advice and hands-on help, including the internet-based resources, which have been growing since 2008 when we did our last evaluation. Now, in Oregon, the IPP was just rolled out in February. In a way, it's too soon to have a definitive evaluation results. There've been 389 users agreement, parenting plan that have been generated, 20% have been safety-oriented. We have no idea how many are being generated by the child support population. We don't know what penetration is like with the child support population because it's across the state with all could well be divorced families, it doesn't matter. They all use the same form. We did survey 34 attorneys, 32 child support workers, 20 family court workers. These professional groups cite strong satisfaction with the IPP, and they're excited about it, but the child support workers were the most skeptical. They're most apt to be concerned about the length of the IPP, the amount of information it provides, the amount of time it would take to complete it. They were most apt to support a simpler kind of IPP. We had 40 parents use the form from the child support population, but it was hypothetical. They weren't really doing it for real, 31 mothers and 19 fathers. They gave it high ratings, 8.8 or 9.1 out of 10. But, again, the mothers were somewhat more comfortable than the fathers with jumping around website and using online resource. It's, I'd say, cautiously optimistic, but it's really soon. Ellen Rutledge: Dawn or Ruth Anne, do you guys have ... And, Dawn, maybe let's just start with you. Have you talked to anyone in the field? What are you hearing about the interactive parenting plan? Dawn Marquardt: I think we've had more people using it. We're in our fifth and final year of the Parenting Time Opportunities for Children Grant. We extended for the fifth year. One of the things we did was we had a help desk analyst who is available to answer questions either by email or by phone. She gets calls from people, or emails, but a lot of those questions are more about, "How do I go about it? Do I need to talk to an attorney? What if the other side doesn't agree?" more of that, and then even, "At what age can a child refuse to go?" Not really the types of questions we were planning on. A lot of what happened with that is there might've been glitches in the parenting plan, in the interactive parenting plan that day. We spent a lot of time communicating those to the judicial department to say, "Oh, this isn't working," and then testing it for them, because, unfortunately, they don't have a lot of the resources to do that either. The feedback that we've gotten is that it's generally pretty user-friendly. We're actually publicizing it more than the judicial department is. Officially, the grant ends end of September, so we're trying to update our publication that we can give out to people to direct them to the website and help promote it. Ellen Rutledge: Okay, ladies. I have another question from our audience. Are you ready? Mediation/facilitation is one of the approaches in establishing parenting time. Is it sufficient to obtain an agreement without it being ordered by the court, especially if parents do not feel it's necessary to get it court ordered? Jessica Pearson: I'll take that [inaudible 01:22:33]. We've seen that in a lot of our studies of mediation that many people do not get it ordered through the courts. They treat them as psychological contracts. They achieve the benefits of having it specified and spelled out, of having it clarified. However, if things fall apart and they want to have it "enforced", it can't be enforced if it's not a legal ... If it's not a court order, it's not legally enforceable. Yeah, it may not be sufficient. It's definitely necessary to have it spelled out and have something written down so people know where they stand, but it's not sufficient if it comes to the issue of enforcement, which is quite a different matter. Ellen Rutledge: Ruth Anne? Dawn? Do either of you use mediated agreements, or the programs encourage those or have resources for those? Ruth Anne: This is Ruth Anne. I'll just add that I echo what Jessica is saying about it being it's a great concept to have just the agreement of the parties, whether that's just mediated or facilitated and agreed upon, but at least for us in our IV-D program in Texas, it's a moot point just because of the requirement. I mean if a family were to seek to do that outside and not have any child support involvement whatsoever, that's certainly an option, but if the family ever does engage with the child support program, it's a package deal. You couldn't get child support ordered in an informal agreement that isn't encompassed by the court. Now they can mediate and agree upon a plan, but it would be a formal process. It would be through that structured process, not completely off on its own. Ellen Rutledge: Dawn, what about Oregon? Dawn Marquardt: I would generally agree that it's ... I mean it's valuable to have the parties agree and to have said, "Yes, this is what we're going to do." They will know based on each other if that's going to be sufficient or not, but it's not legally enforceable. In my experience, when I was practicing, the issue that frequently came up is when one of the parties has a new partner, then suddenly issues come up and then you don't have a court order to fall back on. But I think that's when the big issues can be is that, "Oh, well, you have a new girlfriend," or, "I have a new girlfriend and we don't like that person." and they're trying to spend time with the kids. All of that stuff can really complicate it. I think having it in a court order is best. It could be an agreement that was reached in mediation, but it just depends on what they need. There's lots of people that make it work without getting a court order. But when it goes bad, it goes bad. Ellen Rutledge: Well, I'd like to thank all three of you. I think we are officially out of time. Kurt may come back in to sign everybody off, but thanks, all three of you, so much for your insights today. Kurt: Thank you to all of our presenters. On behalf of NCSEA, we'd like to thank our presenters for a great program and you, the audience, for your participation in today's event. You will now be directed to complete an online evaluation form. Please share this link with all participants at your site. Webtalks are an important part of our programming, and your feedback is vital to the improvements and development of future events. Please do take a few moments to complete this short survey. This does conclude today's program. Thanks and enjoy the rest of your day.