Are all home studies conducted the same way?
No! Due to the increased demand for custody reports and the minimal education and training requirements, more mental health professionals from different disciplines are beginning to supplement their incomes by doing them “on the side”. This results in psychotherapist, psychologist, and social workers providing services with little or no training or experience in conducting these types of studies. This results in evaluators making improper recommendations to the courts, leading to custodial placement of children in the wrong home.
What experience and training do evaluators need to be qualified to complete a custody study?
The experience and training requirements for performing studies is minimal. Generally, the evaluator only needs to have completed a limited number of supervised studies and work a few years in a human service field. The quality of this experience and training is difficult for the courts to evaluate, so many poorly prepared evaluators are allowed to conduct studies. Under some circumstances, the individual completing an evaluation only needs to be “determined by the court to be otherwise qualified” to do the evaluation. In other cases, the evaluator only needs a bachelor’s degree in social work to be qualified. Smaller towns and cities even require less experience and training of their evaluators.
Do custody studies really matter that much in court?
Absolutely! Study evaluators will often times tell families that they are simply making a recommendation to the court. Which is true, the court has the ultimate authority when deciding custody arrangements. But, however, the courts rely very heavily on the recommendations of the home study evaluator and is usually the only evidence the Judge will consider in making decisions about custody. I have only seen a Judge reject a home study twice in my career.
What do I do if I don’t agree with the evaluator’s recommendations?
Talk to your attorney about your concerns and the reasons you feel the evaluator’s recommendations are incorrect. Have the report reviewed by a trained experienced professional who has extensive experience and training the area of custody evaluations. This should be done quickly and prior to the custody hearing. Sometimes courts will grant continuances if concerns raised, to give a party time to obtain the professional opinion.
What happens next?
If you have the study reviewed by a professional and it is determined there are problems with the study then your attorney will have important information to use in convincing the court to order a new study. If necessary the expert can testify in court as to their finding and opinions.
Any more questions?
Send me an email to mark@childplacingconsultants.com