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Children and Parenting after Separation

246 bytes removed, 16:03, 25 March 2021
Section 211 reports
<blockquote>"[A report's purpose] is to assist the Court in determining the issues before it, including the paramount issues of what is in the best interests of the children. The section itself contemplates that the person doing the investigation must be approved by the Court, and must be independent or neutral. ... The investigation is carried out for the purposes of the Court, and in the best interests of the children, and not those of the partial parents who are embroiled in what is seen as the dispute of their lives, who generally represent the extremes of every issue, and whose evidence is often found to be coloured to say the least."</blockquote>
 
A more recent case called ''[http://canlii.ca/t/g2nxw Smith v. Smith]'', 2014 BCSC 61 discusses why needs of the child assessments should be ordered.
 
For information on to how get a needs of the child assessment, see [[How Do I Get a Needs of the Child Assessment?]]. It's located in the ''How Do I?'' part of this resource, in the section ''Other Litigation Issues''.
====Family justice counsellors====
When people cannot afford the cost of a private assessmentreport from a psychologist, clinical counsellor or social workers, the court may order that an assessment be prepared by a family justice counsellor. Unless the parties otherwise agreeto something else, the Provincial Court will almost always order that a report be prepared by a family justice counsellorwhen a report will be useful. The assessments of family justice counsellors are free.
Because of high demand, assessments prepared by family justice counsellors may take up to a year or more to complete.
====Psychologists , counsellors and counsellorssocial workers====
Assessments are also prepared by privately -retained mental health professionals. Assessments prepared by a psychologist usually include psychological testing.
The cost of these assessments can range from $5,000 to $1620,000, depending on the number of children involved, where the children and the parents or guardians live, and the amount of work that needs to be done. They can usually be completed in three to six months.
===Views of the child reports===