Tennessee set off in a new direction in 1997 with a pilot program in six counties, Davidson (Nashville), Hamilton (Chattanooga), Knox (Knoxville), Rutherford and Cannon counties (Murfreesboro area), and Sullivan County (Tri-Cities area).  Assuming the legislature is impressed with the program results, we can expect the approach to be required for the entire state before long.

        The new approach is intended to change the entire concept of "custody" and "visitation" so that both parents take an active role in "parenting" the child and have "shared responsibility" and have more nearly equal and more frequent contact with the children.

        It also creates a procedure intended to encourage greater agreement between divorcing and divorced parents regarding childcare issues.  One important part of the pilot program is a requirement that all parents of minor children take a parent education class aimed at helping parents understand how divorce effects children and how the parents can minimize the harm to the children.  The parenting classes are to be just four hours or shorter, and they are to "be educational in nature and not designed for individual therapy."  (For the full language of the classes statute, TCA 36-6-405, click here.)  The parents do have to pay for the classes, unless the court makes a finding of indigency (poverty), though at this time the various classes offered in Chattanooga only cost $30 to $40.  But this class is a requirement -- until you take the class you will not be allowed to get the divorce; the Court may find you in contempt and send you to jail for failing to take it if it is your spouse seeking the divorce..

        The basic idea of parenting planning approach is to avoid having the parents approach the court as a battleground where they fight it out to decide who "gets" the child and will be allowed to make all decisions related to raising the child.  The statute, TCA 36-6-402 (click here to see the full language), makes clear that instead of addressing "custody" the court and the parents are to address instead "parenting responsibilities", to determine the role each parent will have in making decisions and performs duties necessary for the care and growth of the child, specifically including the following responsibilities:

 (A) Maintaining a loving, stable, consistent, and nurturing relationship with the child;
 (B) Attending to the daily needs of the child, such as feeding, clothing, physical care, and grooming, supervision, health care, and day care, and engaging in other activities which are appropriate to the developmental level of the child and that are within the social and economic circumstances of the particular family;
 (C) Attending to adequate education for the child, including remedial or other  education essential to the best interests of the child;
 (D) Assisting the child in developing and maintaining appropriate interpersonal relationships;
 (E) Exercising appropriate judgment regarding the child's welfare, consistent with his or her developmental level and the family's social and economic circumstances;
 (F) Providing for the financial support of the child;  and
 (G) Supervising the child to encourage and protect emotional, intellectual, moral, and spiritual development.

        If you can't agree on how to address these things, and everything else set out in the model Parenting Planning form, then you can expect mandatory mediation.  Mandatory mediation is another requirement of the Pilot Project.

        While the goal of the Parenting Planning approach is a good one -- reducing the stress on children in custody disputes and producing parents making a greater effort to help their children survive a broken home -- good intentions alone do not produce good results.  The jury remains out on whether the approach will do any good.  The legislature can pass a law saying pigs can fly, and that won't make it so -- we're talking about folks who could no longer stand each other, and passing a law saying they will now get along for purposes of raising their children after the the parents are no longer together does not make it so.

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