I am a divorced father.  Son is at  elementary school in Broward
County Florida.  I have him two nights- fri and saturday three times
per month.
Custody is legally shared.  Divorce agreement calls for my son to stay
at the school district assigned by my address.  ex-wife is threatening
to notify the school that he 'lives' out of my school district.  What
are the rules applicable here?

Dear mdpa173-ga

Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question.

Generally speaking a court order will supercede any rule, policy or
authority of a given school district. Most school policies are to
remain neutral where court orders are concerned as in this policy
example from the Lodi Wisconsin school distinct:

LODI SCHOOL DISTRICT
http://www.lodi.k12.wi.us/policy/713.htm

Such a neutrality policy is fairly universal across the US. Where a
court orders a child at attend a certain school (or to do any other
activity for that matter) the court expects him to do that. Should
your ex notify the school and the school try to interfere with the
court order, you would, in my opinion, definitely have a valid
complaint against the school district. NO matter what the school?s
eligibility policy is, you are not only following a court order, you
are bound by it. Legally, they probably could not interfere.

What you have here is basically two different sets of exceptional
circumstances: (1) you have a court order that specifies what school
the child shall attend. (2) you have an unusual situation that can
only be altered by the jurisdictional court. What these two things
mean is that you (and the school district) must adhere to the court?s
order unless and until the jurisdictional court (a) grants the
authority to act contrary to the order, (b) alters, amends or
reconsiders the original order, or (c) sets the order aside.

Make no mistake about it, your situation screams out for formal legal
advice (which we are prohibited from giving in this forum). At first
glance it?s pretty obvious to me that the court?s order has the upper
hand here regardless of what your ex or the school district decides to
do about it, but my opinion is of little importance. You would need to
consult a Florida attorney or perhaps even the court clerk for a
clarification of the court order.

I might also refer you to this Parent/Divorced Dads groups where you
might find additional resources to help yourself.

DADS DIVORCE
http://www.dadsdivorce.com/
http://www.dadsdivorce.com/ask/ask-parenting-time.html

DADS DIVORCE: ASK AN ATTORNEY
http://www.dadsdivorce.com/ask/ask-question.html

DADS RIGHTS.ORG
http://www.dadsrights.org/


I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



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Request for Answer Clarification by mdpa173-ga on 06 Apr 2005 07:41 PDT

you are referring to a court order.  i have a divorce agreement. is a
divorce agreement a court order by definition?

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Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 06 Apr 2005 08:45 PDT

A divorce decree is indeed a court order. In fact, most divorce
decrees even end with the statement (or something similar) "Be it so
ordered...".

Divorce decrees set out the legal expectations, obligations and
responsbilities of former spouses toward one another and their
children (or other dependents). Anything contained in the decree is an
enforceable, binding instruction from the court. Failure to follow the
instructions of a divorce decree can (in some instances) land someone
in serious trouble.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

concise, accurate