School's Responsibility in Releasing a Student to a Parent

Murphi02

New Member
Jurisdiction
Wisconsin
I work as a school secretary. Administrators tell us that we cannot prevent parents from signing their children out of school unless (1) the parent's rights have been terminated or (2) there is a no contact order in place. This is difficult for some parents to understand and for me also, at times. For instance, a mom gave us a copy of an order which states dad's "periods of physical placement shall be immediately suspended until further order of the Court". I am told by school administrators that this is insufficient to prevent dad from taking his student. I don't understand that. Could someone please explain?
 
The court has issued an but it is not your place to enforce that order.
Your responsibility is to apply the school's policy to the situation.
If dad is to face consequences for violating a court order that will be dealt with another time.
You might ask your school administration if it is ok to contact local police (do you have a campus officer?) before releasing the child. If you have been provided a cooy of a court order then that officer can enforce the order or otherwise initiate a report on the matter. I wouldn't take that step without approval though.
 
a mom gave us a copy of an order which states dad's "periods of physical placement shall be immediately suspended until further order of the Court". I am told by school administrators that this is insufficient to prevent dad from taking his student. I don't understand that. Could someone please explain?

For starters, the best way to obtain an explanation of something that your school's administrators told you is by asking the administrators to provide further explanation. If my boss tells me to do something that I don't understand, I walk into his office and discuss the matter. If I disagree with him, I tell him so and we have a dialog about it. Ultimately, however, he gets the final say. Anyway...

You told us that your employer's policy is that you must release a child to either of that child's parents unless one of two things is true. You told us that the first thing is that "the parent's rights have been terminated." While that's somewhat vague (e.g., all parental rights or just some of them and, if the latter, which ones?), an order that suspends "periods of physical placement . . . until further order of the Court" is not a termination of parental rights.

The second thing you mentioned is if "there is a no contact order in place." We obviously haven't read the order in question, but the order as you described it is not a "no contact order."

At the end of the day, as far as you're concerned, this is only an issue between you and your employer. Your employer has told you how to handle the situation, so you either do what you're told or risk being fired or otherwise disciplined by your employer.
 
Thank you for your input. The administrators I speak of are located in another building across town and have not been very receptive to questions. I posted here in the hopes of getting a better understanding about these types of situations. Student safety is a huge concern and I am on the front line. Family court order are often confusing and open to different interpretations by laymen. Parents also have a hard time understanding that the papers don't always say what they think they say.

Of course I will do what my employers tell me to do and will leave the interpretation up to them. This particular situation struck me as wrong on some level but I understand that is not my decision to make.
 
Thank you for your input. The administrators I speak of are located in another building across town and have not been very receptive to questions. I posted here in the hopes of getting a better understanding about these types of situations. Student safety is a huge concern and I am on the front line. Family court order are often confusing and open to different interpretations by laymen. Parents also have a hard time understanding that the papers don't always say what they think they say.

Of course I will do what my employers tell me to do and will leave the interpretation up to them. This particular situation struck me as wrong on some level but I understand that is not my decision to make.


Each school building has a principal and cadre of knighted individuals who possess special powers.

Those are the people to discuss your concerns with to ensure all children in your building are protected and educated.

My wife is a high school principal.
She and her assistant principals are available to assist any faculty member or support staff person with questions and concerns.
Does your building not have a principal?


The elected school board has a written directive discussing EXACTLY what confuses you.

Does your school not have such written policies and procedures?
 
I'm certainly not trying to be argumentative. Of course we have a principal but she is not very knowledgeable in these situations. Following your advice, I checked our board policy handbook. It states:

RELEASE OF STUDENTS TO AUTHORIZED PERSONS If only one (1) parent is permitted to make educational decisions or to approve absences of the student by court order, the responsible parent shall provide the school with a copy of the court order. Absent such notice, the school will presume that the student may be released into the care of either parent. No student who has a medical disability which may be incapacitating may be released without a person to accompany him/her. No student shall be released to anyone who is not authorized by a parent with authority to do so.

Thank you. Yes, that appears to be crystal clear and makes my role a lot easier to follow. Believe me, I understand. I am not legally responsible to follow any other court documents. I guess I was just feeling some sort of moral responsibility. Courts typically don't take away a parent's visitation rights w/o reason. Before you jump all over me for that comment, yes, I do realize that is not my concern/not my battle.
 
I'm certainly not trying to be argumentative. Of course we have a principal but she is not very knowledgeable in these situations. Following your advice, I checked our board policy handbook. It states:

RELEASE OF STUDENTS TO AUTHORIZED PERSONS If only one (1) parent is permitted to make educational decisions or to approve absences of the student by court order, the responsible parent shall provide the school with a copy of the court order. Absent such notice, the school will presume that the student may be released into the care of either parent. No student who has a medical disability which may be incapacitating may be released without a person to accompany him/her. No student shall be released to anyone who is not authorized by a parent with authority to do so.

Thank you. Yes, that appears to be crystal clear and makes my role a lot easier to follow. Believe me, I understand. I am not legally responsible to follow any other court documents. I guess I was just feeling some sort of moral responsibility. Courts typically don't take away a parent's visitation rights w/o reason. Before you jump all over me for that comment, yes, I do realize that is not my concern/not my battle.


I never jump on anyone.

I try to offer useful suggestions.

My wife is a high school principal, and we had this very same discussion.

I referred her to the board directives and school policy manual.

Just as you've discovered, this has been thought out completely and codified.

If you ever have doubts, always discuss the matter with your management team.

If you're lucky enough to have sworn school police officers, they can be very helpful, too.
 
Every school system should have in house counsel. Principals are not attorneys (by trade, and few are by education) and are no better equipped to interpret a legal document than you are. They may not have all the answers either. Further, even if there is a court order that says X, the school system may advise you to do Y. Generally speaking, unless the school is an actual party to whatever the action is in court, any agreement is not binding on the school. When in doubt, ask counsel how the system wants to handle this.

Say the order says Dad gets the kids Wednesday night and every other weekend. That doesn't mean legally you can not release the children to him on Tuesday. You are not a party to whatever arrangement the parents have. An order that simply suspends overnights or the previous visitation schedule is not a termination of parental rights. When Mom handed over the document, did she say anything regarding Dad picking up the kids? I can't imagine that your system's policy is to hand over custody documentation to the secretary and hope he or she abides by it. I know that many a school secretary is the glue that keeps the place running and is the first line of defense in supporting school policies, but there is a limit.
 
The district does have out of town legal counsel but does not seem to utilize their services in these matters. Documents are scanned to our Pupil Services Dept. for review and creation of a "flag" if warranted. These people have no legal background that I am aware of but I imagine they have received some sort of training. Our principal does not get involved when I ask questions but only defers to Pupil Services.

We have 1 liaison officer for the entire district and while we may be able to get ahold of him in a pinch, we don't have him review documents. It has been very difficult to get clear instructions. Pupil Services will upload the document and then simply refer to it by title or say something like "placement is with mom" but that doesn't always answer the question of "so what do we do if dad shows up?" I ask for clarification but often get no response (phone calls aren't returned, emails aren't answered) or limited responses (you can try calling mom). Like I said, frustrating.

We absolutely do not get involved in "my week" "her week" situations. My questions always concerned more complicated things. While our written policy is clear at 1st glance, weird situations sometimes pop up and I desire clear instructions.

I'm just venting now, sorry.
 
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