Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Some parenting plans require you to mediate disputes over decision making issues (such as those about education) prior to going to court to ask a judge to decide who is right. Check your parenting plan for language related to alternative dispute resolution. Some will specify that there are not alternative dispute resolution requirements and one can go straight to court.

If you cannot figure out out after reading it, I suggest you hire local counsel, if even only for an hour to consult and get the information you need. That way you can make an informed decision about how to proceed. If your orders are out of Pierce County, make sure you talk to a lawyer about when you can get into court, because unlike other counties, there is often a long wait to get into court for a hearing due to limits on the number of cases they can hear per day.

As to the underlying question, in my experience, if your child is going to a public school, there are usually only one or two choices since it is usually based on where in a given district you reside. If private school is in the picture, it comes down to costs, and usually a court will not force you to pay for private school tuition, although if there are promises to do so in writing, or unusual wealth such that requiring tuition does not impact you, then it may be a different story.

If the father wants the child to go to a school by his home even though he does not see him, then that is not likely to work out in his favor. I caution, I (or any other lawyer rendering an opinion) would need to read all the paperwork in your case. This is by no means a definitive opinion about what will happen in your case, and you should seek that in person consult with an attorney who can actually review your documents. I often hear that many people are on Law Guru because they cannot afford lawyers. I usually reply that while it may be expensive to hire an attorney, it's a lot cheaper to get the job done right the first time than to go it alone, make a mess of everything, then pay many times over what you originally would have paid to clean things up, assuming you even can clean things up.

I hope this helps.