Shared parenting and parental involvement in children's schooling following separation and divorce

Abstract

Although the new family law legislation, the Family Law (Shared Parental Responsibility) Amendment Act of 2006, seeks to implement the notion of ongoing and collaborative parenting of children following parental partnership breakdown, separation and divorce, institutional obstacles still prevent the realisation of this policy. The question then arises: can such a model of separation and divorce be achieved? This question is examined through a discussion of a series of studies undertaken by a Monash University research team investigating parents' involvement in their children's schooling following parental separation and divorce. The research, building on a number of small studies carried out in Western Australia, looked at parents' and teachers' views of schools' ability to relate to separated and divorced parents and the wider difficulty of schools managing this family form.