Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Family Courts topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate approves substitute for child-visitation pilot with $50,000 funding plan
Summary
Senate Bill 168 establishes a $50,000 pilot to create expedited visitation enforcement with a family-law mediator and 14-day hearings; sponsors identified potential funding from federal welfare-reform allocations, the children's justice fund, or revenue from child-support penalties.
Senator Millie Peterson presented a substitute to Senate Bill 168 that would create an expedited child-visitation pilot program modeled on programs in Canada, California and Arizona. Peterson said the pilot is budgeted at $50,000 and described several possible funding sources: federal welfare-reform monies, the state's children's justice fund, or revenues anticipated from bills strengthening child-support penalties.
Under the substitute, a parent who claims visitation is being withheld can bring the matter to court and a family-law attorney would be appointed as a mediator. The mediator would schedule a hearing within 14 days and seek to resolve the dispute with the parties; the mediator may recommend a form of mediation the court would then endorse. Peterson noted judges currently may use jail as an enforcement tool, but that court enforcement is expensive and underused, motivating the pilot.
The Senate voted to place the substitute bill on the third-reading calendar after a roll-call vote that recorded 25 ayes, no nays and 4 absent. The bill will proceed through the usual committee and floor steps toward final enactment.
