Shared Parental Responsibility and Children’s Schooling: Rhetoric and Reality

Thea Brown, Alison Lundgren and Lisa-Maree Stevens, Monash University, VIC(Thea. Brown@med.monash.edu.au)

Shared Parental Responsibility and Children’s Schooling • Viewing Collaborative Divorce and

Shared Parenting Through the Lens of Parents’ Involvement in Their Children’s Schooling

• Can the new Legislation achieve Shared Parenting in relation to Children’s Schooling? Or is it Political Rhetoric than cannot translate into Parental Reality?

Shared Parental Responsibility and Children’s Schooling • Problem first noted by educational

researchers • Children progressed better

academically when both parents involved

• Serious Problem because • Children’s academic achievements

and financial well-being fall post separation

• Education is a strategy to overcome economic disadvantage

Shared Parental Responsibility and Children’s Schooling • Subsequently Non-Residential

Parents raised issues• Issues were about a loss of the link

between themselves and their children’s schooling: no feedback from teachers, no information like reports, school newsletters, unable to attend school events and volunteer activities

Shared Parental Responsibility and Children’s Schooling • Curtin University team did 3 - 4

studies, 1996-2005• Vast Majority of Non Residential

Parents little involved in Children’s Schooling despite desire to be so

• Less than half received school reports despite new Education Department policy

• Researchers thought Non-Residential Parents “excluded”

• Looked for C”wealth family law reform

Shared Parental Responsibility and Children’s Schooling • Monash Researcher found • All States, except VIC, have

publicly accessible policies with NSW policy and website as the best

• Vic Principals interviewed

• Policy and court orders vague, left up to Principal, no training, no support; Principals took varying approaches

• Noted more shared parenting; unaware of new legislation

• Wanted guidance for grandparent s

Shared Parental Responsibility and Children’s Schooling • Larger study of School Staff and

Non-Residential Parents showed schools and parents in great difficulty despite new legislation

• Teachers saw problem as out of their control

• Non-Residential Parents still reporting feeling excluded, unwelcome, ignorant, uninvolved with children’s schooling; had little knowledge of or communication from schools

Shared Parental Responsibility and Children’s Schooling • One group reported more

positively• Non-Residential Parents who were

Teachers • A Finding of Concern indicating

that problems may be too great for most parents

Shared Parental Responsibility and Children’s Schooling • One respondent reported one non-

government school’s special program

• Training for all staff working with children whose parents had separated

• Special Orientation for Separated Parents spelling out policies, procedures, services, and WELCOME

• Special Groups for Children• Counselling Service

Shared Parental Responsibility and Children’s Schooling • Despite Legislation Shared

Parenting Hard to implement• Most Schools have not developed

strategies to manage parental separation let alone shared parenting

• Shared Parenting requires Supporting Services from the Socio-Legal Family Law Service System AND from other system like Schools

• Multi-targeting school systems, centrally and locally, needed but….