Children Need Both Parents: Ohio’s Equal Parenting Bill 2021

By Elizabeth McNeese

To date, there is no specific policy for Ohio on how parent-child relationships are to be viewed or approached when parents separate. There are places in the Ohio Revised Code which state that it’s best for children to have “continued and frequent contact with both parents,” but this falls far short of a clear statement of policy to guide the courts. Further, since most Ohio counties have adopted standard parenting guidelines that follow the every-other-weekend schedule for non-custodial parents, it’s clear that “continued and frequent contact” is insufficient to ensure that children are allowed to fully benefit from the love and guidance of both parents equally after divorce or separation.