How Teachers Can Have an Advantage in Child Custody Proceedings

New York, as with all states, uses the “best interest” standard for determining child custody arrangements. This means parents can expect judges to consider a variety of factors that will go into determining what arrangement would be in the child’s best interest for the long term.

Some examples of some of those factors include:

• Parental ability: Courts want to make sure parent seeking custody will be able to provide for all of the child’s basic physical and emotional needs.
• Consistency: It is generally considered to be in the child’s best interest to create living arrangements that allow children to keep their same routine to the fullest extent possible.
• Safety: Judges will carefully consider whether the child would be safe in a particular custodial arrangement, and any parent who has longstanding issues with substance abuse or physical abuse or neglect will have a hard time getting custody.
• Relationships: Courts will look at the bond between the child and the parent.

These are just a few examples of some of the most common factors you can expect to be a part of the judge’s decision making process.

During this process of establishing a child custody plan, one might wonder whether certain careers better lend themselves to success in child custody than others. There is reason to believe that teachers might have advantages in child custody proceedings over certain types of other arrangements.

Consider, for example, that teachers work regular, predictable hours (the school day), and that their work schedule matches up with their children’s school schedules, making it easier for them to keep pickup and dropoff duties and to prevent any time in which the children are unsupervised. They also generally get good benefits, such as medical and dental plans. Being a teacher also is an indication that they are good at working with children.

So yes, there are some circumstances in which teachers might have an advantage in child custody proceedings, but judges will take many factors into account during those proceedings. For more information, contact an experienced divorce lawyer at Bryan L. Salamone & Associates.