Child Support and Visitation

Introduction

The purpose of this post is to clarify the issues of child support and visitation.  Just to be clear, when dealing with co-parenting, we must remember that child support and visitation are two distinct and separate issues.

Let's take each issue one at a time.

Child Support

According to the website linked here, parents are obligated to financially support their children, no matter the relationship the parent has with their child or the other parent.  

Even in the case in which one parent chooses not to spend time with their child, or is not spending time with their child because of a court order, or has supervised visitation because of a court order, the parent's child support obligation continues.

Child support is just that.  Support.  This means that the support is there to help cover the daily expenses of the child, such as food, clothing, and shelter. It also includes things like extra-curricular activities and healthcare costs.

The children have these expenses for which both parents are obligated to financially contribute.  Typically, the non-custodial parent pays child support.

To Summarize

• Child support is to financially assist the custodial parent with children's' expenses such as food, clothing, shelter, healthcare and other related expenses.
• If the parents divorce, a parent is obligated to financially support their children.  
• If a parent isn't spending time with the children by choice or by court order, the parent is obligated to financially support their children.   
• If a parent has supervised visitation, which is court-ordered, the parent is obligated to pay child support.

Visitation

Visitation is the right of a non-custodial parent to spend time with their child, but with no right to take the child from the primary residence.  A non-custodial parent will only have contact with his or her child limited to visitation under certain unusual circumstances where the court decides it would be in the best interest of the child.

Supervised Visitation

In the state of Pennsylvania, supervised visitation is generally ordered by the court when the court has a documented reason to believe that the child’s safety is at risk while they are alone with that parent.

Rather than completely taking away that parent’s visitation rights, the court will order supervised visitation time. The court will commonly mandate supervised visitation in situations where:

• There has been domestic violence in the household which has not resulted in physical injury to the child
• There has been child neglect in the household that did not result in physical injury to the child
• There is evidence of substance abuse by the parent
• There is evidence that the parent has an unmanaged mental illness

Those with a history of mental health problems, substance abuse, or domestic violence may find that the only option to see their children is supervised visitation.  When the court has reason to believe that the children may not be safe with a parent, they may order supervised visitation with the parent.

Does any of the above make you think of Umar Johnson?

Kayden's Law

From:  Kayden's Law - Custody and Abuse in Pennsylvania 

Kayden's Law is an August, 2024 law that attempts to further protect children's safety in Pennsylvania custody cases.  Kayden's Law is named after a 2018 tragedy where 7-year-old Kayden Mancuso was brutally killed by her father in a murder-suicide.

Prior to the murder, her mother submitted evidence to the [court] of the father's criminal and mental health history as well as evidence of violence and threats by her father.  Unfortunately, father's custody periods were only shortened, without any additional restrictions.  There was no evidence that father had abused Kayden, so he still provided with unsupervised custody.  During a period of unsupervised custody, father committed the murder-suicide.

Kayden's law applies equally to men and women.

Key Takeaways from Kayden's Law

If Umar Johnson is only allowed supervised visitation with his child, there has to be a reason for it.  The reason has to do with the safety as well as the best interests of the child.  In other words, it is not merely the mother's so-called "hatred issues" that can keep Umar away from his child without supervision.

Secondly, Umar Johnson has recorded a threat toward his child's mother.  This behavior goes directly against Kayden's law.  The child's mother only has to show up to court with this video of Umar Johnson issuing a threat against her and he is....

D-O-N-E.

Thirdly, no amount of Internet ranting, raving, trolling and threatening can change the visitation arrangement if there is a court order.

That's it.  That's all.

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