Should you talk to your child’s teacher about your custody plan?

You and your spouse split up, and you create a child custody plan that works around your schedules. While you understand the importance of working this out, it’s not the type of thing you discuss with anyone other than family members and close friends. It’s personal.

However, you need to break out of your comfort zone a bit for the good of your child. This may include telling your child’s teacher.

After all, the teacher should interact with you as parents. You need to be involved in your child’s education, help them with homework and push them to do their best. You need to go to parent-teacher conferences and sign permission slips for field trips and other events. If your roles in the child’s life have changed at all, the teacher needs to know how.

On top of that, simple scheduling issues may crop up on a regular basis. If the teacher knows you got divorced, they also need to know that either you or your ex can pick the child up because you have shared custody.

Conversely, if you have sole custody, the teacher needs to know that your ex should not pick the child up. If the situation is more complicated, you may need to sit down with the teacher and have an in-depth conversation about the new situation.

The specifics differ from one case to the next, but you can see why it’s important for everyone to know exactly where they stand. As you sort out the details, be sure you know all of your legal rights.