Are Crawford County parents less important to their children’s well-being than those in counties like Ashtabula, Carroll, Clermont, Holmes and Tuscarawas? That seems to be the message Judge Sean Leuthold is sending to divorcing parents in Crawford County.

Imagine two children, Amy and Brittany. Both live in Ohio: Amy in Bucyrus and Brittany in New Philadelphia. Unfortunately, both girls’ parents are divorcing. This will be a rough time for the girls but, fortunately, all four of the parents are good, loving parents — divorcing each other, not their daughters — and each wants to remain fully engaged in their daughter’s lives.

I respond to the Tuesday Dispatch editorial “Time to rethink how, or even whether, we elect judges in Ohio?” Voters seldom have the information they need to make wise decisions concerning judicial candidates, but there’s help concerning domestic relations judges.

More than 30 years of research on child well-being strongly supports the conclusion — endorsed by common sense as well — that children of separated parents do best when parenting responsibilities and time with the children are divided roughly equally.

National Parents Organization just published the 2019 NPO Shared Parenting Report Card, and the news for Ohioans isn’t great. The Buckeye state received a middling “C,” the same grade it received in the NPO study five years ago.

That’s no surprise.

In those five years, the Ohio legislature has made no improvements in our laws dealing with post-separation parenting. As a result, Ohio is behind the times; let me count the way

National Parents Organization (NPO) published the 2019 NPO Shared Parenting Report Card, and the news for Ohioans isn’t great. The Buckeye state received a middling “C,” the same grade it received in the NPO study five years ago.

That’s no surprise. In those five years, the Ohio legislature has made no improvements in our laws dealing with post-separation parenting.