Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

Hello random Floridian practitioners of law,

My name is Jeff. I am 23 and I have a four year old daughter. My daughter was born out of wedlock. Her mother and I were engaged but we never married due to a terrible breakdown in our relationship. We stayed together until our daughter was eighteen months old, and then we split up. We have had some terrible, terrible disagreements in the past, but have never let our daughter here us fight, and have always agreed to never take our daughter, one from the other.

For the last two and a half years, we have split custody of our daughter with each parent having her every other week. Quite recently, I was finally able to sell my house and find a place and a well-paying career in Tampa. Her mother, while attempting the same several times in the past, will now not do so due to her own family issues. My reasoning for leaving that county has always been because of it's lack of opportunity, both in work and education.

Having no one to watch my daughter while at work in the morning, as my fianc�e attends college, I did some research and found a day school for my daughter to attend. I informed her mother that I had found a school and that I wanted to enroll her the following week, and that I would pay for it. I told her that I wanted her to attend the school on weekdays, and that she would have her from Friday night to Monday morning.

Her mother freaked, yelling and crying that I was taking her daughter from her, and would not allow me to see her for three weeks, fearing that I was not going to give her back. After finally letting me see her for a week, her mother did the same thing for another three weeks. Now I am forced only to see her on weekends because she will not let me put her in a school in Tampa.

The worst part is, her mother refuses to put her in school, which is all I really want for her, stating that she not old enough for school and needs to be a child and learn family values. Her mother's family consists of her mother, her mother's son from a now incarcerated ex-boyfriend, her mother's boyfriend/fianc�, his daughter every other week, and a friend or two that stay in her guest room, as well as her dying pothead father who lives elsewhere, housing another daughter, weighing four hundred pounds, and her two kids.

After a recent incident involving her mother's now incarcerated ex-boyfriend, in which he took the son and disappeared for the night, she has grown incredibly bold with her statements. Most recently, her mother's boyfriend stated that "[my daughter] is lucky that [I'm] even allowed to see her," followed by her mother with,"yeah, I don't have to let you see her," because "[I'm] not legally her parent". She even said this in front of our daughter, and it took absolutely every atom of resolve that I had to simply kiss my daughter and walk out the door. She even threatened to sue for full custody before I left.

Between her mother's past history of infidelity, drugs, partying, and money squandering, and her recent display of anti-intellectualism, I really fear for my daughter's future.

Now, as I have consulted with an attorney in the county in which her mother resides, I have learned that I have an uphill battle. Because we were never married, and never signed an acknowledgment of paternity, I apparently don't have equal parental rights. I was told that I could not argue that I wanted her to go to a private school with better opportunities out of county because the judges in the this county all attended the schools in this county and have children that attend schools in this county. I was told that because I am the one that moved, I am less likely to win. I was also told that the custody battle would cost us more than either could afford. So I have a few questions...

Why, at the hospital, when we signed the affidavit to have my name put on the birth certificate, were we not presented with the acknowledgment of paternity? Why, if I do not have parental rights, was I able to take her to the Health Department for vaccinations, enroll her in day school twice, as well as VPK, and sign her up for Medicaid under my name? What are my options here? What can I do to get my daughter into school in Tampa? How can I save her future without bankrupting the parents controlling it?

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