Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
Hello;
I live in central Texas, and I have a question regarding homeschooling and non-custodial parental rights. My fianc� has joint custody of his two daughters, both of whom live with their mother in a nearby city. He sees them every first, third, and fifth weekends. The older daughter, who is 12, has been having anger and anxiety issues. Her mother's response is to propose homeschooling, either next year or when she is old enough to begin high school. We feel this is a very bad idea for many reasons--isolation, emotional effects, lack of training on the mother's part, limited educational opportunities, etc--and have said so. She still seems to want to do it.
My question is, if the mother decides to remove this girl from school, what can we do? What will our legal options be?
Thanks in advance,
Barbara
1 Answer from Attorneys
It depends on how rights and duties were allocated in the final decree of divorce. If both parents have independent rights (a terrible idea but very common with attorneys too lazy to deal with the issue during the divorce), or if she has the exclusive right to make educational decisions, she can do this and there's probably nothing you can do about it.
If the right to make educational decisions is a joint right (another terrible idea), then she can't do it without his consent.
HOWEVER, if you want to focus on the anger and anxiety issues, you might try to change conservatorship so that your fiance is the primary conservator and the child comes to live with you. If the child prefers to do that vs. be homeschooled, you have a good chance of that working out.
You will need an attorney to help you get any modifications done. If you don't think you can afford an attorney, please contact the Texas Legal Services Center (www.tlsc.org). They can refer you to an attorney who will take the case at a significant discount.
Good luck!!
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