(Newswire.net — November 23, 2018) — Compared to fathers in other states, divorced fathers in Illinois get some of the least amount of custody time with their kids, according to findings of a new study. Children in Illinois spend an average of 23.1 percent of their time with their father. Illinois ranks 47th in terms of the amount of custody time granted to fathers, followed only by Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
The study was conducted by Custody X Change, a company that makes software to help divorced parents create shared custody and parenting plans. The data was amassed partly by surveying legal professionals about the custody plans and schedules that they most often encounter. The study only took into consideration cases in which both parents desired custody and lived close enough to one another as to make shared custody possible, and in which there were no extreme factors added into the equation such as one parent being arrested or in jail.
In recent years, many states have moved to give divorced fathers more custody time with their children. Last year, 25 state legislatures considered or passed laws to encourage shared parenting after divorce or make it the default. The top states for dividing custody time evenly between the mother and father are: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
For more than a century, courts generally granted primary care to the mother with the fathers as visitors, based on the now outdated “tender years doctrine” which defined women as superior caregivers. Change began to take place in the 1960s and 70s but nevertheless, many courts continued to give primary custody to the mothers, leaving fathers left out.
With extensive research showing that having an active father is in the best interest of children, the old precedent of granting the mother more time with the kids is further being challenged. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that children without fathers are at a significantly greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse. Also, children of single mothers show higher levels of aggressive behavior; constitute 71% of high school dropouts; have more trouble academically; and are more likely to miss school than those kids with involved fathers.
While shared custody is indeed the ideal, the reality does not always allow for it according to the Law Offices of Scott D. Rogoff, P.C. As such, the best interests of the child needs to remain as the guiding principle in determining custody arrangements, while still attempting to treat each parent equitably as possible.