Custody

If the other parent committed abuse, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the parent will not get any rights of legal custody, residency, and parenting time. A judge will consider many factors to decide what is in the child’s best interest, including these factors that relate to abuse:

• Did the parent committed “domestic abuse,” which the law defines as:
  • a pattern or history of physically or emotionally abusive behavior, or the threat of either, that the abuser uses to gain or keep control over you;
  • an act of domestic violence, stalking or sexual assault?
• Was the parent criminally convicted of child abuse or is s/he a registered sex offender?
• Was someone the parent lives with criminally convicted of child abuse or is s/he a registered sex offender?¹

​Note: To help the judge decide legal custody, residency and parenting time, the judge can order a parent to undergo a domestic violence offender assessment and to follow all recommendations made by the program doing the assessment.²

¹ Kan. Stat. § 23-3203(a)(9), (a)(15)-(a)(18)
² Kan. Stat. § 23-3203(b)