Guest Editors' Introduction to Special Issue on Parenting Coordination

• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Author: Linda Fieldstone,Debra K. Carter
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12504
• Date: 01 July 2020

SPECIAL ISSUE: AFCC PARENTING COORDINATION GUIDELINE

REVISION TASK FORCE

GUEST EDITORS’INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE ON

PARENTING COORDINATION

Debra K. Carter and Linda Fieldstone

It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with the contributors to this Special Issue on Parent-

ing Coordination and to serve on the interdisciplinary Association of Family and Conciliation

Court’s (AFCC) Task Force (“Task Force”) on Parenting Coordination. The members of the AFCC

Task Force on Parenting Coordination (2017–2019) were: Debra K. Carter, Ph.D., Chairperson;

Ann M. Ordway, J.D., Ph.D. and Linda Fieldstone, M.Ed., Reporters; Leslye Hunter, M.A., AFCC

Associate Director and Staff Representative; Hon. Dolores Bomrad, J.D.; Dominic D’Abate, Ph.D.;

Barbara Fidler, Ph.D.; Alexander Jones, J.D., MSW; Mindy Mitnick, M.Ed.; Jack A. Moran, Ph.D.;

Daniel T. Nau, J.D.; Matthew Sullivan, Ph.D.; and Robin Belcher-Timme, Psy.D., ABPP.

The Guidelines for Parenting Coordination (“Guidelines”) are the product of the AFCC Task

Force and are included in this issue and on AFCC’s website, www.afccnet.org. These Guidelines

build on two previous AFCC task forces, which produced the report, “Parenting Coordination:

Implementation Issues,”

1

and the first set of AFCC Guidelines for Parenting Coordination, origi-

nally published in 2005.

2

The 2019 Task Force was charged with the task of updating and expan-

ding the first set of Guidelines to reflect the changes and developments that have occurred

throughout the United States, in Canada, and across the world in the approximately twelve years

since the original Guidelines were first released.

AFCC has been the leader in examining the issues inherent in what is now this widely-accepted

child-focused dispute resolution role and in creating guidelines for parenting coordination . In par-

enting coordination practice, highly trained and experienced mental health, legal, and conflict reso-

lution professionals serve as parenting coordinators (PCs) to help parents maintain safe, healthy

relationships with their children if reasonably possible by: developing and implementing parenting

plans; monitoring compliance with court orders; settling ongoing disputes regarding their children;

reducing conflict through education on communication and effective decision-making; and when

necessary, making non-substantive decisions within the scope of the court order. With expansion of

parenting coordination across the globe, has come significant variation in the manner in which juris-

dictions implement parenting coordination, the authority of the PC, the stage of the legal process

when the PC is appointed, the various functions of the PC, the qualifications and training of the PC,

and the best practices for the role.

Though primarily commissioned to update and revise the 2005 Guidelines, members of the Task

Force also identified emerging issues in need of exploration: the need for systematic research on the

effective use of parenting coordination; technology in parenting coordination practice; the use of

parenting coordination when intimate partner violence is a component of the dynamic; the impor-

tance of multicultural competency; the impact of legal directives as statutes, rules, and

Corresponding: debra.carter@thencpc.com

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 58 No. 3, July 2020 641–643

© 2020 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts