Parenting consultant services

A parenting consultant is a professional chosen by the parents and then appointed by the court to help resolve parenting disputes and manage their parenting plan. A parenting consultant cannot change custody, even if the parents agree, but may make decisions on any other topic the parents agree to in the parenting consultant appointment order. Some decisions a parenting consultant may be asked to make are: 

• Modifying the parenting time schedule.
• Setting guidelines for transportation of the children to school, activities, or each parent's residence for parenting time.
• Breaking an impasse for a medical decision.
• Negotiating what activities a child will be enrolled in and how the costs will be divided.

First, you and your co-parent will be asked to make a good-faith effort to resolve the conflict yourself. The reason this is required is not only to keep both parties working on communication skills, but also to help keep your costs down by only engaging the parenting consultant for the insurmountable issues. Attempting to negotiate on your own prior to engaging the PC can also help you distill the conflict down into manageable pieces and clarify your position. 

If you are unable to reach a resolution, you will then reach out to Alyssha. She will ask that you prepare a short statement identifying what the issue is, what steps you have taken to resolve it, and what your proposed solution is. The other parent must be copied on this proposal. Alyssha will then ask the other parent for their proposal. Each parent will then be afforded an opportunity to provide a short statement identifying any parts of the other parent's proposal with which they can agree as well as their reasons for disagreeing for the remaining parts of the proposal.

After Alyssha has received proposals from both parents, she will gather any additional information needed, and if needed, speak to your child and/or any collateral contacts. She will ask any clarifying questions of the parents and will also schedule individual meetings with both parents.

Finally, Alyssha will prepare a report outlining her decision and reasoning, which will be shared with the parents. After you receive the decision, Alyssha requires that you wait 48 hours prior to contacting her with questions about the decision. The reason for this "cooling off" period is that as a natural result of any decision, one parent will be disappointed, and attempting to communicate immediately after receiving the decision is unlikely to be productive. If you find that there are incorrect factual statements in the decision, Alyssha will ask that you provide her, via email, with a list of those inaccuracies. 

Barring extraordinary circumstances, Alyssha does not reconsider decisions - otherwise, no decision would ever be "final" and the cost to both parents would increase substantially as a result of requests for review. 

A more detailed statement of the process and Alyssha 's policies is available for download at the bottom of this page.