Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Violence Law Lawyer | Boca Raton

There is a popular belief that when parents divorce, children may be adversely impacted in a significant way.

There are some studies that reveal correlations … but they do not really prove causation.

Now, unrelated studies, having nothing to do with divorce, are revealing that very young children, perhaps even as young as two or three years old … may experience depression, and exhibit signs of depression. Even children from happy, intact homes.

It could be in the genes … or in the nurturing by similarly afflicted parents … or a combination of both … as well as other factors.

For numerous reasons, such depression may not be officially diagnosed or classified, or may be diluted down to a so-called “risk factor” or predisposition, or other similar terms.

Regardless, something to be reckoned with.

Imparting a new dimension to consideration of the potential impact of divorce on children.

And of the potential impact on children of living in unhappy home environments for extended periods of time.

Read more in this New York Times article: Can Preschoolers Be Depressed?

Divorce is complicated.

When the spouses have a special needs child, it gets a a lot more complicated.

Parents of special needs children have to plan together for their child’s future … even if they won’t be together themselves.

In the specific context of the parents’ divorce or separation, the parents should know that child support obligations for a dependent child may continue beyond the age for children who don’t have special needs. Possibly indefinitely.

And that support may include significant health-related expenses that don’t apply to children without special needs.

Additionally, timesharing with a special needs child may involve significant expenses that don’t apply to a child without special needs.

Both support and access expenses should be addressed by the parents’ divorce or custody case.

Especially if a special needs child receives or will be eligible to receive benefits or government services related to their special needs, it may be advisable to establish a special needs trust to protect the child’s right to those benefits and to ensure compliance with the applicable law so that benefits and/or services are not inadvertently forfeited.

Additional matters to cover in such a trust are future housing, medical insurance and potential inheritances for the child.

Beyond the financial aspects, caregiving for a special needs child is more complex and demanding than for a child without special needs.

If responsibilities are going to be allocated, there should be a clear and comprehensive allocation of responsibilities.

If not, one parent should be designated as primary custodian and caregiver and be awarded sufficient parental responsibility and authority to provide appropriate care unfettered.

Designation of an alternate legal guardian should be made in the event that the primary caregiver dies or becomes unable to care for the special needs child. In appropriate cases, a legal guardian may be appointed for a special needs child who is an adult based on chronological age but nonetheless in need of a legal guardian.

A primary caregiver should maintain a care journal that captures the daily caregiving routine, to aid any successor guardian. It should include information about the child’s preferences and behaviors.

Read more in this Lexington [Kentucky] Herald-Leader article: Divorce planning for children with special needs.

Husband and Wife divorce after twenty-eight years of marriage.

Husband and Wife have an autistic adult Son. Wife assumes responsibility for Son.

In all the time that they were married, Husband reportedly only worked about seven years, even before Son’s birth. Despite having an MIT MBA – which Wife helped pay for.

In the divorce, Husband is awarded half the marital assets. This includes a house.

Husband is also awarded monthly alimony of $2,000.

Wife, like so many husbands before her, resents having to pay alimony.

But, more than that, Wife feels that that money would be put to better use for Son’s care.

Because Wife has to pay alimony, Wife, at 56 years old, will have to borrow money to pay for Son to attend college.

And when Son finishes college, Husband may seek additional alimony.

For his part, Husband believes he is entitled to more alimony … since he “stayed home” with Son.

Read more in this Boston Globe article: Mother of disabled son must pay ex-husband.

Happily married Husband and Wife have Son.

Son is born very prematurely and is plagued by related medical problems.

Son qualifies for free coverage because he is considered “disabled” by reason of his prematurity.

Son has expensive heart surgery and eye surgery.

Son has home nurses while Husband and Wife are at work.

Now, the state is reclassifying Son as no longer disabled.

As a result, Son will lose free medical coverage.

That would likely compromise Son’s medical care.

But there is one other way for Son to retain his free medical coverage:

If his family’s household income decreases due, for example, to a divorce.

So now Husband and Wife are contemplating divorcing … for their Son’s health and welfare.

They wouldn’t be the first Tennesee couple to divorce to hang onto free medical coverage for a child.

The state expects to save between $150 and $200 million by updating classifications of insureds who were disabled only temporarily.

Of course, some of those insureds may still qualify for free coverage by meeting the income qualifications for recipients.

But Husband and Wife don’t.

Read more in this [Nashville] WSMV-TV article: Couple To Divorce For Toddler’s Health Care.

Two year old Son had developmental delays and a deformity of his head.

Allegedly because Father shook him – twice – when he was just two months old.

For that, Father was sentenced to four years of probation … after pleading guilty to felony child abuse.

And given custody of Son in 2007.

Father’s household generated five new allegations of child abuse or neglect in 2007.

And still Father had custody of Son.

Father took Son to doctor to check a shunt placed in Son’s head after he was shaken.

Son didn’t cooperate and his appointment was rescheduled.

Father apparently wasn’t happy. A nurse reported sounds like a spanking.

That night, Father’s wife heard Son screaming.

Son died of blunt force trauma to the head shortly afterward.

Now, Father has been arrested in Son’s death and charged with second degree murder, child abuse and probation violation.

Two babies have been removed from Father’s home since last year.

Read more in this Las Vegas Review-Journal article: Las Vegas man arrested in 2007 death of his toddler son.

Two-thirds of juvenile correctional facilities inmates suffer from at least one mental health diagnosis.

Many such children are confined in such facilities because their families are unable to find affordable mental health treatment for them in their communities.

So, the government reports, 9,000 children a year are simply given up by their families in hopes they will have mental health treatment in corrections facilities.

So the children receive what treatment they receive at public expense … from juvenile detention facilities…

The primary residential psychiatric treatment facilities for minor children.

A juvenile criminal record, punishment, neglect, violence and abuse are just part of the nonmonetary price tag.

The current recession’s impact on state and county budgets only aggravates the problem.

Therapists trained in treating children are in short supply and multiple powerful narcotics often become the only treatment these children have.

Read more in this New York Times article: Mentally Ill Offenders Strain Juvenile System.

In one North Carolina county, the number of children in foster care has gone down, pretty dramatically, over the last several years.

How did they accomplish it?

The child welfare agency there has been experimenting with several preventative, early intervention programs, using government and charitable funds grants.

Each program or service has a different focus, such as:

1. maintaining the involvement of fathers in their children’s lives
2. assigning a nurse to each new mother during her baby’s first two years
3. promoting relationships between parents and extended family members
4. offering therapeutic foster care services, to train and support parents of children with special needs
5. placing removed children with extended family members rather than in foster care with strangers

Between 2002 and 2009, the number of children in foster care in this North Carolina county shrank from 573 to 396.

Read more in this [Greensboro, NC] News & Record article: Editorial: Keeping families whole.

Mother and Father have two young children, the oldest autistic with special needs.

After the parents separate, the Father fails to return the children from a weekend visit.

Eight months ago. The divorce isn’t even final yet.

Father keeps changing attorneys or missing court, so Mother is unable to communicate amicably about their children.

Law enforcement authorities view the disappearance of the children as a family matter, for family court and, apparently, do little.

Until Father tries to cross the border to Canada with their kids. Twice. Unsuccessfully.

The first time Father doesn’t have required papers. The second time the customs agent follows a hunch.

At that point, a felony warrant is finally issued.

A good samaritan reports a man and two children walking in 20 degree weather in Pennsylvania … with no coats or jackets on.

That leads to Father’s arrest and the children are taken into protective custody.

Read more in this Salt Lake City Deseret News article: Mother’s 8-month ordeal ends with father’s arrest.

A Utah mother deployed to Iraq gave legal custody of her 5 year old quadriplegic daughter to her boyfriend, who had previously served in Iraq.

Boyfriend reportedly suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse problems.

Boyfriend allegedly neglected child to the extent that her weight dropped from 35 pounds to 13 pounds.

The girl had a grandfather who succeeded in obtaining a child custody protective order and rescuing her.

The child rebounded dramatically within 3 months in her grandfather’s care.

The boyfriend was sentenced to one to 15 years’ incarceration.

The criminal court judge thought the boyfriend was “salvageable” despite his alleged squandering of the child’s disability checks and her mother’s military payments while neglecting the girl.

Particularly considering the child’s special needs, one can’t help but wonder what the child’s mother was thinking when she transferred legal custody of her child to this man.

The mother does appear, however, to have gotten custody back upon the end of the mother’s deployment.

Read more in this Salt Lake Tribune article: Man gets prison for nearly starving quadriplegic child to death.

November is National Adoption Month.

In her new book, an author reminds potential adoptive parents that many children, particularly special needs children, are waiting for them … and adoption out of the foster care system into loving homes.

She would know. She is the adoptive parent of a special needs child herself.

Learn more from this PRWeb press release: Best Selling Author Speaks Up For Special Needs Adoption and the author’s own website.

Under current law, parents who believe that their special needs student’s public school is not adequately meeting their special needs bear the burden of proving at an administrative hearing that that is the case.

That can be a time-consuming and expensive proposition.

In New York state, the governor just approved a bill that will shift to the school the burden of proving that it is meeting the special needs student’s needs.

This is an enormous victory for New York’s special needs kids and their parents.

Will other states follow suit?

Read more in this Syracuse Post-Standard article: Spitzer OKs special ed bill.

All parents worry about their children’s future when and if something should happen to them. In “broken families”, the custodial parent often tends to worry even more.

But for no parent is that worry greater than the parent of a special needs child.

The College Living Experience, sponsored by the Educational Services of America, is working on alleviating that worry in a unique way.

Simply put, the program facilitates special needs children attending college.

The program houses special needs college students together in apartments where they can deliver tutoring, independent living skills training, social outings and psychological support services.

The program operates in several major cities, including neighboring Fort Lauderdale.

Read more in this PR Newswire press release: Students With Special Needs Attend College This Fall.

When children have special needs, the first battle is grasping what those special needs are and how to meet them.

The second battle is meeting the costs associated with them. This challenge is generally even greater in families “broken up” by divorce or separation.

Ignorance can be very costly to parents and children.

And there are many financial, educational and social benefits for special needs kids, but parents may have to ferret them out.

One important tool that is likely indispensable to a child with special needs is a special needs trust.

A parent with a special needs child needs a support network consisting of many professionals who provide services to their child – including a good financial planner and attorney familiar with special needs planning.

Read more in this Kiplinger article: Planning for Your Disabled Child.

An Arizona mother going through a divorce had a lot more than her divorce on her plate.

Her four year old special needs child was stagnating in preschool, unable to speak or communicate. The girl is autistic, has cerebral palsy and is mildly mentally retarded.

Frustrated and desperate, her mother enrolled the child in a private school for autistic children.

The divorcing mother didn’t know how she’d keep up with the tuition, but her parents funded her daughter’s start in the school and she plowed ahead.

A short year later, her daughter is thriving. She communicates with sign language, verbalizes, makes eye contact and interacts with the people surrounding her.

Arizona passed a school voucher program that allows disabled children to attend private schools. That program has enabled this little girl to remain in the private school that has benefited her so greatly.

Despite success stories like this, the Arizona program is dramatically under-utilized. In very sharp contrast to a similar program here in Florida.

How come? Commentators attribute poor response to several factors, ranging from low public awareness to ongoing legal challenges that foster a perception of precariousness and instability. Opponents argue that there is simply little interest.

Despite improvements in public education of special needs students nationwide, local public schools in Arizona were reportedly simply inadequate to this little girl’s needs and, according to her mother, many other area children whose parents struggle to keep them in special private schools.

Private school vouchers, once under hot debate, are again being hotly debated in a dozen or so states.

Read more in this East Valley [Phoenix] Tribune article: Vouchers for disabled students go unused.

Whether because of physical disabilities, emotional conditions, learning disabilities or other causes, children may have widely differing and, sometimes, special needs.

Every child has a right to a public school education which is appropriate to their needs, including their particular special needs.

But not every parent knows their child has that right. Or recognizes that their child’s needs are special.

For many people, the first time, and possibly the only time, that they will interact with an attorney is for their divorce.

And that critical time and circumstance often leads to getting their house in order, in many different respects.

Preparation for the parental responsibility / child custody, timesharing / visitation and child support aspects of a divorce or paternity case may bring a fresh as well as more experienced perspective on important unrecognized and unmet needs of the children involved.

Articles such as this Kingman [AZ] Daily Miner article: Special education a major component at KUSD help to educate the general public about how common special needs are, and the legal right of special needs children to a quality special education.

Students with recognized special needs make up about thirteen (13%) percent of the student population on average. Students with unrecognized special needs would undoubtedly raise that statistic higher.

Every exceptional student must have an individual education plan or IEP designed with their particular special needs in mind.

If your child may have special needs, they shouldn’t have to wait until a divorce or paternity case for those needs to be recognized and accommodated by an IEP.

Help should be waiting in the office of the school’s exceptional student education counselor.

Thanks to detailed child support guidelines in Florida, child support is one of the more cut and dried aspects of a family court case, be it a divorce or paternity action.

But even so, there are certain issues that do-it-yourselfers or DOR-supplicants need to be aware of.

Too often, clients come in with child support calculations that they are so confident of, they already (verbally) agreed on numbers with the other parent. Typically, they used a so-called online child support calculator to arrive at the numbers.

Of course, almost anything parties can agree on is great. Almost.

But child support is a duty owed to a child. Except perhaps in extraordinary circumstances, it should not be waived, compromised or deferred by the custodial parent on behalf of the child.

Not even out of ignorance.

Florida’s child support statute allows for deviations from the guidelines under various circumstances.

The grounds for deviations are rarely (if ever) taken into account by so-called online child support calculators. Worse, they usually don’t even alert their users to considerations which are not factored into the online child support calculators.

This can be a recipe for disaster for many kids.

One all-too-common situation is children with disabilities or children with special needs. Special needs kids and disabled kids often require a variety of physical and other therapies, as well as special educational and other needs.

Although outside the standard child support guidelines calculations and online child support calculators, these needs may be taken into account in deviations from the standard guidelines.

More specifically, the statute allows deviations for:

“1. Extraordinary medical, psychological, educational, or dental expenses. …

“6. Special needs, such as costs that may be associated with the disability of a child, that have traditionally been met within the family budget even though the fulfilling of those needs will cause the support to exceed the proposed guidelines.”

This is especially important for the custodial parents of special needs children or disabled children because the special demands of parenting them may significantly limit their ability to “throw themselves into their career” so as to earn more money to support their family.

The bottom line is that parents of children with special needs or children with disabilities should not cut corners or jump on child support offers prematurely at the ultimate expense of the children and themselves.

The court is there to protect the interests of the children subject to the divorce or paternity action, especially those most in need and deserving of advocacy and protection.

Read more in Florida Statutes, Section 61.30 (11)(a) and (b)(8).

“I find the child support agency is totally unfair and biased against non-custodial parents”.

Another deadbeat dad making excuses?

No. A non-custodial mom. In jail. For non-payment of child support.

“Meanwhile, this state has treated me no better than a person who’s committed murder“.

Her daughter suffers from disabilities that reportedly demand her mother’s time and prevent her from working.

This mother complains only that the child support enforcement system in her community is unfair to non-custodial parents.

One can’t help but wonder whether all non-paying, non-custodial parents in that community are treated equally, the way this mother is being treated.

Or whether all non-paying parents’ justifications and/or excuses (or lack of same) are weighed on a case by case basis, according to the particular facts at hand.

Read more in this Richmond [IN] Palladium article: Child-support system hurts child, mother.

A Boston couple has won a $400,000 judgment because adoption agencies failed to disclose medical information about the health and delivery of their adopted twin sons’ birth mother. The boys were born here in West Palm Beach fourteen years ago.

The concealed medical information placed the children at risk of various disabilities, and the boys do in fact suffer from a number of disabilities, including cerebral palsy and Tourette’s Syndrome.

The judge barred the jury from awarding emotional damages, constraining the judgment. The boys’ adoptive father doubts the boys will ever become self-supporting, and may appeal that ruling.

The jury also found the adoptive parents partially negligent.

Read more in this Sun Sentinel article and in this Bradenton Herald article.