HB2363 FOSTER AMT 3-5 #1

Spano 3382

Delegate Foster moved to amend the bill by striking out the title and substituting therefor a new title, to read as follows:

Com. Sub. For H. B. 2363 -- A Bill to  amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended by adding thereto five new sections, designated §48-1-217a, §48-1-239a, §48-1-241a, §48-1-241b, and §48-9-204a; to amend and reenact §48-1-210, §48-1-218, §48-1-219, §48-1-220, §48-1-239, §48-1-241, §48-1-303, §48-9-101, §48-9-102, §48-9-201, §48-9-203, §48-9-204, §48-9-206, §48-9-207, §48-9-208, §48-9-209, §48-9-301, §48-9-401, §48-9-402, §48-9-403, §48-9-601, §48-9-602 and §48-9-603 of said code, all relating generally to the public policy recognition and preservation of the fundamental constitutional rights of all parents to raise their own children and that it is presumptively in the best interest of children to be raised by both of their parents equally; creating the “Best Interests of the Child Protection Act of 2021”; defining “Full adversarial judicial hearing”, “shared legal custody”, “shared physical custody”; and “sole physical custody; establishing the presumption that co-equal shared legal and physical custody of children, and the maintaining of sibling, including half-sibling, relationships through co-equal shared legal and physical custody of children in cases of divorce to be in the best interests of the children and families; requiring that temporary parenting plans, parenting plans, modifications to parenting plans and parental relocations consider that the presumption of co-equal shared legal and physical custody is in the best interests of a child; requiring courts to consider such presumption of co-equal shared legal and physical custody being in the best interests of a child when determining significant parental decision making responsibility, legal and physical custody and parenting time allocation; establishing certain procedural safeguards in the judicial review and allocation of parenting plans; establishing both parents’ rights to school and medical records of their children; providing parents in a shared parenting plan each have the authority to make a child’s health care decisions, delineating relevant factors to be considered by Courts in determining the structure of a shared parenting plan; providing certain exceptions to the confidentiality of domestic relations court files; providing certain findings; creating rebuttable presumption that equal custody generally is in the best interest of a child; providing additional criteria to be consulted in temporary parenting plans; requiring the adoption of model parenting schedules; delineating factors for allocation of custodial responsibility and significant decision-making responsibility; providing for sibling contact in criteria for parenting plans; providing added limiting factors in parenting plans; providing additional criteria for court-ordered investigations; providing additional criteria for modifications in changed circumstances; providing additional criteria for consideration when a parent relocates; providing additional criteria for parental rights to access children’s records; and providing effective dates.

ADOPTED

REJECTED