Does My Daughter’s School Have To See the Entire Order?

Question: I am raising my daughter as the custodial parent, and her father had her every 1st and 3rd weekend for visitation. I recently won full custody of my daughter and her father cannot see her at all now. He has tried to call or go to her school. I gave the school a copy of the first page regarding the Plantiff and the Respondent, signatures, file number of the case, as well as the single page where the Judge says that he is to have no contact with his daughter.

The school she attends wants to know why he lost shared visitation. I feel it isn’t necessary to show them the entire document because there are some personal and negative issues regarding her father that they shouldn’t be allowed to read. It doesn’t mention anything in those specific pages about my daughter, only his issues and why he lost shared visitation. They are now demanding the entire document.
Do I have to give them the entire document, even though I’ve given them the single page information signed by the Judge and the first page of the document, regarding our daughter?

 

 

 
Answer:
Your question is whether or not you have to provide the school with the entire Order or just parts of the Order.  Because I do not practice in Mississippi, I do not know the laws of Mississippi.  In my jurisdiction, if you and the father were ever married the Order would be public record.  Meaning anyone could go to the courthouse and obtain a copy of the complete Order.  However, if the Order was from a paternity action it would not be.

The school may be concerned that since they are not seeing the entire document, there may be provisions of the document that are relevant as to whether or not the father can communicate with the school.  They may not be willing to enforce the Order on your behalf without seeing the whole document and I cannot say whether or not that is lawful in your state.  If there are safety hazards that the school needs to be aware of in order to protect the child while she is in their care, it would be important for the school to know the concerns which resulted in the no contact order.

As an alternative, if you do not want the school to have the document and you can prevent the document from being disclosed, you have other options for enforcing the Order.  If he shows up at the school you could call the police.  In addition, if either party violates a provision in a court order, a party can ask the Court to find the violator in contempt of court.  As a sanction for violating a court order, the Court could order jail time.

Erica Christian is an Associate Attorney in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin office of Cordell & Cordell, P.C. She is licensed to practice law in the state of Wisconsin. She is a member of the Wisconsin Bar Association, the Family Law Section and the Children’s Law Section.

 

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