Dear Editor,

The Alabama Family Rights Association provides the presentation below for parents, educators and others to effectively deal with post-custody child rearing issues during the school year to limit the negative impact on the children, parents and school administration. How to effectively deal with these challenges is important to children’s lives.

Healthy Children, Healthy Economy Presentation: http://www.alfra.org/healthy-children-healthy-economy/.

The need for children to have both parents is most evident in academics and extra-curricular activities. The Alabama child custody law, enacted in 1852, primarily allows the state of Alabama to award physical custody of children to only one fit parent in contested custody cases. Alabama is currently 43rd in U.S. for high school graduation, with 71 percent of dropouts consisting of children with restrictive contact with one of their biological parents.

Roughly 23,000 students in Alabama did not graduate from high school in 2011. If just half of Alabama’s dropouts had graduated, they would likely have provided the following economic benefits to their state: $227 million in increased home sales and $13 million in increased annual auto sales, 800 new jobs and a $141 million increase in the gross state product, $6.6 million in increased annual state tax revenue.

Our presentation helps parents learn how to be active in their children’s academics and how to partner with the Alabama school administration to maximize the opportunity for a successful educational experience. We believe healthy children will lead to a healthy economy!

This valuable resource is available free to non-custodial parents, school counselors and other educational staff members, the administrative office of courts, therapists, mediators, parent-child coordinators, social workers, Alabama DHR representatives, family law attorneys, judges and legislators.

Alabama children deserve to thrive in school. They will do best with both of their fit parents active in their lives.

The presentation below was presented on July 17, 2014 by the principal of Gordo (Alabama) Elementary School, Mr. Kenneth Holder (also the former Principal of Gordo High School) and approved by the Alabama Family Rights Association and Robin Maddox.

To learn more about the Alabama Family Rights Association, email info@alfra.org

Kenneth Paschal
Pelham