With school starting up again soon, early August may be a great time for Peoria, parents who are subject to an allocation of parental responsibilities order to review that order. They can also re-acquaint themselves with what Illinois law says about custody, decision-making and parenting time when it comes to school.

The first place parents should look to do so is their court-ordered parenting plan. This document sets out the allocation of parental responsibilities in detail, and it is supposed to be tailored to each family’s unique needs and circumstances.

Whether agreed to or imposed by the court, a parenting plan should set out decision-making authority about a child’s education. One parent, or perhaps both parents, will have the right to choose where he or she wants a child to attend school, what additional activities the child will be involved in and the like.

If both parents have this authority, the parenting plan will also likely have provisions about what the couple must do if they cannot get along about these sorts of decisions. Likewise, an Illinois parenting plan must also have a provision in it that allows both parents, no matter who has what decision-making authority, to access and review school records for their children.

Some parents may discover in the course of reviewing and thinking about their parenting plan that they need to take some additional steps. For example, in some cases, they may need to enforce the parenting plan’s provisions when it comes to education. In other cases, they may wish to make a change in the plan so as to ensure the best education possible for their children. A skilled family law attorney can assist with these additional steps.