Department of Family Court Services
John Ollerton, Director

Introduction

Family Court Services is comprised of Family Divorce Services, Domestic Support, and the Court-to-School Liaison program.  These departments serve both Domestic Relations and Juvenile Courts.

Divorce Court Forms

 Cases come to Family Divorce Services by Court Order or by a party making a request.  The issues handled by Family Divorce Services include custody and parenting time and include cases where there is non-compliance with existing court orders.

Family Divorce Services covers seven major areas:

1.         Mediation
2.         Pro-Se Mediation/Mediation Abuse Neglect and Dependency (MAND)
3.         Mediation Juvenile Truancy
4.         Visitation Assessment
5.         Home Study
6.         Seminar for Separating Parents
7.         Seminar for Unmarried Parents with visitation hearings

Mediation allows the parents and a neutral mediator to work together to gather information, isolate issues of disagreement, generate options to settle those issues, negotiate among those options, and reach a mutually satisfactory agreement to accommodate the needs of both parents and their children.

 The Pro-Se Mediation program enables parties who divorced, established parentage in this county, or obtained an administrative order of paternity through the Lorain County Child Support Enforcement Agency to avail themselves of mediation. Issues for mediation include property that has not been returned or transferred, exchange of medical insurance information, unpaid medical bills, noncompliance with visitation schedules, establishing visitation, and overpayment of child support.

The MAND process enables parents and interested parties to mediate a viable case plan with the goal of reunifying families.

The Visitation Assessment unit assists the Court and parties in the implementation of visitation orders. This assistance may include an investigative report with recommendations to the Court regarding companionship, as well as implementing, monitoring, or supervising parenting time. A visitation assessment may be requested by either a client or his/her attorney and requires an accompanying Court order to begin the assessment.

The Home Study unit prepares an investigative report to the Court. Information is gathered through interviews with parties and children and outside sources. The study assists the Court in determining the most appropriate placement for the children and must be initiated by Court Order.

The Seminar for Separating Parents provides an educational opportunity to inform parents about the impact of divorce on their children. The two-hour presentation provides pertinent information and resources early in the divorce process and strives to enhance the likelihood of parental cooperation. Attendance is mandatory for parents with minor children, resulting from the Court’s philosophy that a child's future is impacted by parents' ability to minimize conflict.

Judge David A. Basinski and staff present the seminar. A court-produced video specifically addresses the needs of separating parents and is shown at the seminar.  The Court's publication, From Crisis to Cooperation, is provided as a guide to assist families in coping with the divorce process and is given to all participants. The seminar is provided at no cost to the participants.

The Seminar for Unmarried Parents was developed as a result of the Court's awareness of the needs of Parents who did not have access to the educational seminar for Separating Parents, by virtue of having children and being unmarried. Thus, the Seminar for Unmarried Parents was developed to help unmarried parents understand both the legal and emotional issues involved with parenting time. Family Divorce Services staff facilitate the seminar and a Court magistrate is present to answer legal questions. The court-produced video illustrates the importance of positive parental communication, the need for positive parent/child contact, and answers common legal questions. The seminar is provided at no cost to the participants. The seminar is followed by individual parenting time discussions designed to formalize a companionship schedule for the non-residential parent.

Domestic Support Unit

The Lorain County Domestic Support Unit provides judicial services to the Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA), operated by the State of Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Ohio's child support program is a federal, state and county partnership charged with creating and implementing programs that meet federal and state laws and regulations. The contract provides funding for the operation of the Domestic Support Unit and includes full and partial reimbursement of salary and benefits for 22 court employees, including five magistrates.

The purpose of the Domestic Support Unit is to provide hearings to address all issues involving the support of children, including default and contempt. The unit provides staff to prepare and file all journal entries pertaining to child support in the Juvenile Clerk's Office.

School Liaison Court Forms

The Lorain County Juvenile Court's court-school liaison program addresses the attendance issues of students deemed to be truant from school. To address truancy, the program utilizes a formal process, which involves the collaborative efforts of the participating school districts, the Lorain County Juvenile Court, as well as the Lorain County Prosecutor's Office. The collaborative process utilized in addressing truancy was highlighted at the 2004 national superintendents' convention in Phoenix, Arizona where the program was showcased as "An attendance Program That Works."

As a preventative measure, the school principal initiates the process with a letter to the parents of each student showing an early pattern of truancy. The letter explains the compulsory education laws and advises of a referral to the court-school liaison program, if the problem continues.

When a student has accumulated five unexcused absences, he/she is formally referred to the liaison by the school principal. It is the responsibility of the court-school liaison serving the school to address the issue of truancy with the parent(s) and the child utilizing a number of interventions. Student attendance is monitored on a weekly basis to determine the interventions needed to address the problem. Interventions utilized by the liaisons would include:

• Correspondence to parents informing of the compulsory-education laws and the legal implications, if school-attendance problems persist.

• Conducting family conferences with the student and parent(s) at the Justice Center and/or the home.

• Referral to the Family Divorce Services to address truancy through mediation.

• Initiating community resource and social-service referrals, if needed, to help address truancy issues.

• Interviewing students at their home schools.

• Participating in principal/superintendent conferences with the parent(s) and the student.

• Communicating with school officials on a weekly basis to discuss the status of on-going cases.

• Involvement of the program social worker to address "at risk" family issues that interfere with a student's attendance at school.

• Placing parents into the Parent Education Workshop.

Liaisons participate in the prosecution process through:

• Preparation of a narrative report, recommendations, and case materials to support the prosecution of a case.

• Assisting principals with the prosecutor's packet, necessary to initiate prosecution of a case.

• Participation in all adult/ juvenile legal proceedings, in which formal charges were initiated by the liaison.

• Monitoring of the compliance of court orders.

• Filing a sworn affidavit with the Prosecutor's Office for the violation of court orders, which enables the Prosecutor's Office to file a Motion to Show Cause, or contempt motion.

Family Education Court

Functioning as an alternative to the traditional approach of addressing truancy within the court setting, the Family Education Court Program conducts proceedings within the school environment. Both a magistrate and a bailiff add a formal dimension to the process of addressing truancy outside of the traditional courtroom.

In addition to a magistrate and a bailiff, the Family Education Court Program is managed by a small, cohesive Family Education Court team, which consists of a:

• Home-School principal who initiates the process and supports/promotes the program within the school and the community.

• School counselor who functions as the family educator and the academic connection between the participating families and the school staff.

• Case manager (social worker) who serves as the family advocate and identifies/addresses "at risk" family issues, which interfere with attendance at school.

• Home counselor who assists the case manager, monitors participants' attendance, and manages the aftercare program.

• Program manager who oversees the management of the program.

Formal charges are not filed against the parents/students participating in the program; therefore, hearings are conducted on an unofficial basis. Parents and students appear for hearings before the magistrate on a weekly basis. The case manager and the school counselor participate in the hearings as family advocates. The teachers of the participating students participate in the hearings as advocates for their students, emphasizing student successes and positive behaviors, despite shortcomings.

Although shortcomings are addressed, the chief tenets of the Family Education Court process are incentives and positive reinforcement of the efforts made by the students, as well as the parents participating in the program.

The Family Education Court pilot program is modeled after the Louisville (Kentucky) Truancy Court Program, which promotes positive reinforcement to change poor school-attendance behavior.

As with the Louisville program, it is the responsibility of the school principal to identify and initiate contact with the parents of students who are excessively absent and/or excessively tardy to school. A family's participation in the program is elective.