Residential parents in Ohio

The term residential parent basically means, "The parent that the child lives with".  In the state of Ohio, as in many states, the residential status of a parent affects the process used for everyday decision making, in regards to the child.  Specifically, these are some of the areas of parenting that are influenced by residential arrangements:

• Education

• Discipline

• Religion

Another consideration for residential status of a parent is the designation for school district purposes.  In the event that the parents live in different districts, the child will go to school within the district of the parent designated as the residential parent for school.  Should the parents live within the same district, of course, this separate designation for school is rather meaningless, insofar as what school they will attend.

Ohio Revised Code and residential status
 

As illustrated in the custody section of this site, the Ohio Revised Code offers a clear and concise provision for the residential status of unmarried parents when their child is born.  The conditions created by section 3109.042, where the allocution of residential status to unmarried parents and related areas apply, are:

• When the parents sign an Acknowledgment of Paternity Affidavit, the unmarried father does not have residential rights to his child.  He must first establish a parent and child relationship, as described in section 3111.02 of the Ohio Revised Code;

• The child is "considered living" with the mother only, for any an all purposes;

• Only the mother may receive assistance from programs such as cash assistance (TANF) and related offerings from the Department of Job and Family Services or seek help with a referral from Info Line, for the availability of various community resources.

Courts and residential parents

The way in which residential status is determined by a court, seems to generally to be based upon a few factors, which are:

• Parent's ability to communicate and work together for the child's best interest;

• Close proximity in location between parents;

• Each parent's ability to to make reasonable decisions on the child's behalf;

• Any complete agreement between the parents.

Section 3109.042 of the Ohio Revised Code, as earlier described, further states that when a court is "designating the residential parent" of a child, it "shall treat the mother and father as standing upon an equality when making the designation".

Residential arrangements

There are a few options available to use when determining residential parents of a child.

• A parent is the sole residential parent of the child, for any and all purposes;

• Each parent is a residential parent, where the daily decisions need to be made for the child and one parent is the residential parent for school district purposes only;

• Instances where both parents live in the same school district, they each may be residential parents and the designation for school district becomes rather redundant.  A separate designation for school does however, make a difference where public assistance and other community resources are concerned, as outlined earlier in this page.

  *Note:  Any court may,  at its own descretion, determine that a parent should not be a residential parent, or allow one to be specifically and soley designated for any purpose.