The National Parents Organization is a 501 not-for-profit charitable and educational organization in the United States that promotes shared parenting. The organization focuses on family court reform, research and public education with the goal to make shared parenting the general norm in every state. The stated mission of the organization is to improves the lives of children and strengthen society by protecting every child's right to the love and care of both parents after separation or divorce and to seek better lives for children through family court reform that establishes equal rights and responsibilities for fathers and mothers.
History
The organization was founded in Massachusetts in 1998 with the name Foundation for Fathers and Families. The founders were Ned Holstein, John Cristofano, Phil Clendenning and John Maguire. The name was later shortened to Fathers and Families. In 2013 the name was changed to the National Parents Organization in order to reflect the organizations belief in gender neutral shared parenting and parental equality, as opposed to seeking any special rights for fathers.
The National Parents Organization seeks to reform laws both at the state and the national level to encourage shared parenting. Most of the family court reform work is done by local affiliates on a state-by-state basis. In Kentucky, the National Parents Organization was instrumental in the 2018 passage of HB528, the nation's first presumption that shared parenting is in the best interest of the child. In Virginia, the local affiliate led the successful campaign for House Bill 1351, requiring courts to consider shared custody arrangements along with sole custody. In 2016, the NPO affiliate in Missouri helped pass a law stating that judges may not give custody preference to a parent because of gender, age or financial status. , In Utah, the National Parents Organization was a catalyst for House Bill 35, which encourages family courts to more equally award physical custody after a divorce or separation. The bill passed in 2015. The organization has advocated for and helped pass military parent child custody legislation in several states, ad has introduced legislation protecting men and children against paternity fraud. Members have served on state child support guidelines revision committees..
Research
The organization promotes and disseminates scientific research on how children are effected by shared parenting versus other custody arrangements. It has published a Shared Parenting National Report Card, which gave each state a grade of A to F on the degree to which they promote shared parenting after divorce or separation. The highest grade, which was just a B, was received by Alaska, Arizona and Minnesota. The lowest grade of an F was received by New York and Rhode Island. In Ohio, the local chapter evaluated and compared the court guidelines that each county uses to determine parenting time when parents cannot agree. Each county received a grade of A to F, with A given to guidelines with the most equal time. Most counties received a D, but two counties, Ashtabula and Tuscarawas, received an A, while one county, Van Wert, received an F. The media attention generated interest and discussions among judges and court officials, with some counties revising their guidelines.
Public Education
Through conferences and media, the National Parents Organization does public education on the benefits of shared parenting, based on scientific research from across the globe. Members also works to raise awareness about the problems with parental alienation. Together with the International Council on Shared Parenting, the National Parents Organization sponsored the Third International Conference on Shared Parenting, held in Boston in May 2017. The theme of the conference was Shared Parenting Research: A Watershed in Understanding Children’s Best Interest? The conference had presentations by scientists in the field of optimal post-divorce parenting arrangements. The organization engages social, local, and national media to raise awareness about the family court system, shared parenting and parental alienation, with coverage by many both minor and majormedia outlets.. For example, in 2018 the co-chair of the Virginia chapter wrote an Op-Ed on comparing the growing uproar to children being separated from their parents at the border with the forced child-parent separations imposed by our family courts.
Organizational Structure
The organization is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts; Ned Holstein Massachusetts, is Founder and Chairman of the Board The National Executive Director is Petra Maxwell. There are 16 state affiliates in California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and Virginia.
