Custody & Kidnapping

Although I cannot speak to how things are usually done in your state, often times, in general, judges do not get involved in the specifics of what each parent can do with his/her child during that parent’s time with the child. In terms of whether or not a parent can take a child out of state during his/her court-ordered visits, sometimes this issue may be addressed in the custody/visitation order. [ADD IF RELEVANT: In terms of whether or not a parent can leave the child out of state with a relative, this may also be something that a judge views as a choice that the parent can make during his/her time with the child. Often the only time the extended family of a non-custodial parent can spend with a child is during the non-custodial parent’s parenting time/visitation.]

In general, if a custody order says that certain behavior is not permitted, and one of the parties acts in the unpermitted way, the other party may be able to file a violation petition in court. A violation petition generally asks the judge to hold the other party in contempt, which can have various consequences. You may want to talk to a lawyer for advice about your specific court order’s terms and whether or not the current actions are a violation of the order or not.

If a court order does not prohibit going out of state, but if there is a specific reason that a parent doesn’t want the child to leave the state, perhaps it may be possible for someone to try to modify a custody/visitation order to disallow out of state visits. Again, I don’t know whether or not the judge in your particular case would include such a provision or not - perhaps you may want to get advice from a lawyer on this. You may also want to ask a lawyer whether or not you may have to give a specific reason why you don’t want your child going out of state (for example, maybe a child has a serious medical condition and needs to be close to his/her doctor at all times, or if there may be some other specific reason that the child needs to stay in the state, etc.).

Whatever your specific situation is, you may want to ask an attorney whether or not you may be able to file in court to try to modify the visitation order to prohibit out of state vacations during visitation if that is what you want. Perhaps an attorney can also tell you whether or not there may be any sort of law or regulation in your state that addresses the issue of a non-custodial parent traveling out of state. Here is a link for lawyers, free and paid: LINK Here, too, is a link with custody information in STATE in case that is useful: LINK