Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana

My ex-wife and I have 50/50 joint and physical custody of our two children (8th grade & 5th grade). My ex-wife has a bit of a compromised immunity and we have been overly cautious of Covid for her benefit. We agreed for the children to be completely virtual for school during the 2020-2021 school year with the understanding if Covid was better they would be back in school. She just informed me that she wants to have the children in virtual school again during the 2021-2022 school year despite cases being extremely low in our Indiana area. Our children are straight A students and I feel they are not being challenged enough virtually and want them back in-seat in their advanced classes. When I objected,she is now even saying she may want to home school them despite the fact we have never supported this for them previously. I am firmly against home school for them.

She is acting as if I have no parental rights regarding education and her Covid concern overrides my input in this decision though our divorce agreement clearly states otherwise. What are my options if we can not come to an agreement? I assume my only option would be to contact my attorney and file a motion and the judge would decide. Do I have any grounds for a good outcome in this case knowing she does have a higher risk of Covid? She is convinced she is only protecting herself and the kids, but she is ignoring the social and academic impacts of isolating the children for another year.


Asked on 6/28/21, 2:55 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jay Rigdon Rockhill Pinnick LLP

Whenever you have a disagreement between joint custodians you have the option of letting the judge "break the tie", so to speak. You also have the right to get third parties involved, such a as a counselor or a mediator, to facilitate additional discussion between the two of you.

As to what a judge might do, there are completely no precedents to guide us, as this is a novel situation. The attorney who handled your case may have a good read based upon knowledge of the individual judge, but that is it.

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Answered on 7/08/21, 8:32 am


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