When you and your spouse got divorced, your child was not old enough to go to school. You knew you would have to make some decisions about their education in the future, but it was not something you had to worry about during the initial divorce itself.
But now your child has reached the age where you need to enroll them in their first school. If you and your spouse were still married, you would simply work together to find the school that you thought was the best fit, whether that was a local public school, a private school, a religious school or something else entirely.
Because you and your ex are divorced, which one of you gets to choose the school? What do you do if you cannot agree?
You likely need to work together
The thing to remember is that choosing a child’s school is a legal custody decision. Parents can be given legal custody rights, which do not address where the child lives, but instead address key decisions about education, religion, healthcare and much more.
So if you and your ex both share legal custody of your child, that means you still need to work together, just as you would have as a married couple. You will have to find a school that you both agree on. You cannot just enroll your child in a school near you, and neither can your ex.
Naturally, you may disagree. Perhaps you want to send the child to a private school, and your ex wants to send them to public school. In a situation like this, remember not to violate your ex’s custody rights by doing anything on your own. You either need to compromise, or you may need to go to court to get a ruling on how the two of you should proceed.
Your legal options
Are you worried that your former spouse may have violated your custody rights by making important decisions without your input? If so, be sure you know what legal options you have.
