Our business is education. As a general rule of thumb, the school will not get involved with custody matters. Custody disputes must be handled by the courts. By law, if parents are legally separated or divorced, each parent retains equal rights to the care and custody of the child(ren) unless one or both of them have had said rights revoked. An order limiting or revoking parental rights would be produced in a court of law and would bear the signature of a judge. The school has no legal right or authority to refuse a biological parent access to their child(ren) and/or their school records.

If a parent has a current, signed court order limiting the rights of the other parent or other persons, the school must have a copy of the court order on file (a telephone call stating such an order exists is insufficient). If a copy is not on file, the school is obligated to release children to their parents with proper identification. Situations that may put the welfare of a student in question will be handled at the discretion of the administrator or his/her designee. In situations that become disruptive, or if a parent becomes belligerent, law enforcement will be contacted for intervention.

Further, because of each parent's inherent rights mentioned above, the school will not participate in the enforcement of parenting plan schedules such as who is allowed to pick up or which parent should be called first on certain days of the week.