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March 28, 2011

The Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines Revision Project Is Continuing

The Domestic Relations Committee posted minute summaries from their last two meetings.  This post will discuss some of the items noted in the summaries which are pertinent to the ongoing review of the parenting time guidelines (and some regarding the child support calculator).  My previous posts regarding this review are here and here.


At the November 2010 meeting members of the committee completed review of suggested revisions concerning "scheduled parenting time to occur as planned," in other words, how to enforce and encourage parenting time orders to be followed.  Committee members also discussed the effect of amendments on existing parenting time orders.


The following areas will be discussed at the next meeting: (a) Presume More Time for Noncustodial Parent, (NCP)/Protection of NCP rights / Overnights / Overnights for Infants and (b) Equal Parenting Time. The "next meeting" would have presumably already occurred as the meeting schedule is Friday, January 21, February 18, March 18, May 20, July 15, August 19, and November 18, 2011 from 10:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Judicial Center, as well as in conjunction with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts Regional Meeting in Indianapolis on Oct. 27-29, 2011 in Indianapolis.  


The October 2010 minutes note that a draft of rule related to Parenting Coordination was circulated for discussion among the committee members.  The draft is not available for public comment/review at this time.  I have written about parenting coordination in previous posts.  I doubt parenting coordination would be given it own rule in the new Indiana parenting time guidelines, but I would expect a reference to parenting coordination in the guidelines commentary.  

Finally, at the November 2010 meeting, the committee noted the following areas of need as to the child support calculator: (1) The addition of a social security disability calculation to all calculators, (2) A quick input calculator for high volume courts, and (3) The development of a separate “income calculator” for the purposes of adding together various sources of income of parents for use in the child support rules and guidelines.