A recent report from the Institute for Family Studies looked at data from the U.S. Census Bureau to better understand the living arrangements of children throughout the United States. The 2014 data released from the Bureau shows that 43 million children throughout the United States live with both their birth mother and biological father in a traditional married-couple family. This represents a 58% majority. In addition, only 2.7 million children (or just 4%) live with two birth parents who are not married.
According to the Institute for Family Studies, these numbers suggest that the talk of the growing irrelevance of marriage may be overstated. It should still be noted, however, that the number of children living with married parents is still much lower than it was in the 1980s when about two-thirds of children lived with married parents. The next largest category of living arrangements involves children living in a single-parent home. More than a quarter of children throughout the United States live with one parent and 23% live with their birth mothers compared to 4% who live with their birth fathers. Other smaller categories include children living with one biological parent and a stepparent, two adoptive parents, grandparents, or foster parents.
Parental Rights in Ohio
For parents raising children in more than one home, it is important for the parents to understand their rights and responsibilities for the care of the child. Under Ohio law, each parent stands “ upon an equality as to the parental rights and responsibilities for the care of their children and the place of residence and legal custodian of their children, so far as parenthood is involved.” In a divorce, legal separation, or another proceeding, a court may allocate the parental rights and responsibilities for the care of the minor children. In allocating parental rights and responsibilities, the court may allocate rights in one of two ways.
First, a court may allocate the parental rights and responsibilities for the care of the children primarily to one of the parents, designate that parent as the residential parent and the legal custodian of the child and divide between the parents the other rights and responsibilities for the care of the children. Second, the court may enter a shared parenting plan. Under a shared parenting order, the court may allocate the parental rights and responsibilities for the care of the children to both parents. Furthermore, under a shared parenting order, parents may be required to share all or some of the aspects of the physical and legal care of the children in accordance with the approved plan for shared parenting. When making any determination, the court must take into consideration the best interests of the child.
Contact a Cleveland Parental Rights Attorney
If you have questions regarding parental rights in Ohio, a Cleveland parental rights attorney can help. The attorneys at Laubacher & Co. have extensive experience providing legal advice on a variety of family law issues, including parental rights, child custody, adoption, and divorce issues.