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→Assessments and reports about children and parenting after separation
A full parenting assessment will make recommendations about the arrangements for parenting and contact that the professional believes to be in the bests interests of the children. They can also be asked to look at, and make recommendations about, specific issues such as a parent's mental health, a parent's capacity to care for the children or the impact of family violence.
Parenting assessment can help parents who are trying to resolve issues about parenting after separation out of court, through negotiation, collaborative settlement processes, and mediation; in fact, parenting assessments often provide the input parents need to reach a settlement. They're also useful when parents are dealing with disagreements about parenting through litigation and arbitration. It's important to know, however, that while judges and arbitrators almost always appreciate the opinion of the professional who prepared the assessment, they're not required to accept the professional's recommendations.
Parenting assessments are available from Family Justice Counsellors, government employees attached to the Provincial Court, for free. Because these assessments are free, there's a huge demand for them and you can expect to have to wait months for the assessment process to begin and months for the process to complete.
===Evaluative views of the child reports===
Evaluative views of the child reports, which are also sometimes called "hear the child reports" and "voice of the child reports," are prepared by mental health professionals under section 211(1)(b) of the ''Family Law Act''. They are available when parents agree that a report should be prepared, or when a judge or arbitrator orders that a report should be prepared. In most cases, the professional will:
*speak to each of the children, sometimes more than once, and
*review reports and other documents about the parents, the family or the children.
These reports are important because both the ''Divorce Act'' and the ''Family Law Act'' include children's views and preferences among the factors that must be taken into account when deciding the arrangements for parenting and contact that are in the best interests of the children. (You can find this factor at section 16(3)(e) of the ''Divorce Act'' and at section 37(2)(b) of the ''Family Law Act''.) They will describe the children's views, preferences and wishes and provide the mental health professional's opinion of the children's views, preferences and wishes. The professional might provide an assessment, for example, about the strength and consistency of the children's views, the extent to which the children's preferences are in their best interests, and the extent to which what the children have said reflects what the children actually think.
Parents, judges and arbitrators often find it helpful to hear what the children have to say about things from a neutral professional. Like parenting assessments, these reports can provide the missing piece of the puzzle that helps parents finally agree on parenting schedules and decisions about issues like where the children go to school, which extracurricular activities they participate in, where they live, and how much time they spend with relatives.
===Non-evaluative views of the child reports===
Non-evaluative views of the child reports, which are also sometimes called "hear the child reports" and "voice of the child reports," are prepared by mental health professionals, by lawyers, and by anyone else who's been trained to speak with children and report on their views. People who aren't mental health professionals may not be able to provide a report about the views of children younger than five or six, depending on the child's maturity and verbal skills.
These reports are different from evaluative views of the child reports because the person who speaks to the children isn't being asked to provide an opinion or an assessment of what the children have said, they're just being asked to describe what the children have told them. The person who speaks to the children will usually ask the children questions about life before their parents separated, what their parents' separation was like, life after separation, and what they would like for the future. The person who speaks to the children can also be asked to focus on specific issues, like the children's experience of the conflict between their parents, and the children's preferred parenting schedule.
Non-evaluative views of the child reports are available under sections 37(2)(b) and 202 of the ''Family Law Act''. They are available when parents agree that a report should be prepared, or when a judge or arbitrator orders that a report should be prepared. In most cases, the person preparing the report will speak to each of the children once, or twice at most. Because the person preparing the report isn't providing an opinion, they won't be interested in reading reports about the children, reviewing materials filed in court, speaking to the parents, or speaking to people who know the family and the children. ''All they're doing is describing what the children have told them.''
==Resources and links==