You and your spouse got divorced in the spring. It’s now the summer, and you’re settling into your child custody routine. At the same time, your child has just reached the age where you’re going to enroll them in preschool or kindergarten, so you know that there are going to be some significant changes coming up in the fall.
But how do you decide what school your child will actually attend? Say that you live in an urban area and you want your child to go to the local city school. Your ex lives in a relatively rural area, a half hour away, and they would like to put the child into school in their neighborhood. Who gets to choose?
You may need to work together
The reality is that this can be a very complex situation that may lead to conflict. If you both have legal custody rights, then you may need to work together to choose a school jointly. You can’t simply enroll the child in the school near your house, and your ex cannot enroll them in the school in their neighborhood. You both have a right to be involved in this decision, which means finding a joint solution that you can both agree on.
That said, the above only applies when you share legal custody rights. If the court gave just one of you legal custody—even if you share physical custody rights—then the parent who has been authorized to make important decisions can simply choose the school on their own. If your ex does not have legal custody, for example, you can just enroll the child in the school near your house, and they can’t stop you from doing so.
Since these situations get very complex, parents who are involved in a dispute or a conflict must understand their legal rights.
