The Minnesota Supreme Court has amended the Minnesota Parent Education Minimum Standards. Click on the link to access the new standards and court order signed by Chief Justice Lorie S. Gildea.
Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes 518.157 subd. 2, the Minnesota legislature requested that the Supreme Court “promulgate minimum standards for the implementation and administration of a parent education program.”
The original standards were issued in July of 1997. The Supreme Court has now amended the standards because “technology has improved greatly since the Minimum Standards were promulgated.” For instance, online parent education programs are now available and, apparently, easily accessible to the public at large.
The standards essentially require that all divorcing couples in Minnesota who have children, must attend parent education programs. The program’s purpose is “to serve as an early intervention mechanism to encourage cooperation between parents before adversarial behavior and conflict has a chance to develop.”
As a practicing Dakota County divorce attorney, I know that these programs are beneficial. Many of the topics covered in the programs are very beneficial to the children of divorcing parents. A divorce is an extremely difficult time in many of my client’s lives and, perhaps more importantly, in the lives of their children. The parent education programs help to alleviate some of the disruption caused by a divorce.
The biggest change to the parent education standards is in paragraph G:
G. Length and Nature of Program; Online Programs. The parent education program sessions should be offered at least monthly, be available at flexible times (i.e. days, evenings, and weekends), and be at least four to eight hours in length to adequately cover the topics set forth below in paragraph k. In lieu of an in-person class, parents may complete an online parent education program that otherwise complies with the Minimum Standards.
(emphasis in original).
-This post was written by Joseph M. Flanders, an Apple Valley, MN divorce attorney.
