Kentucky Courthouse Commentary (mine. File with “Rapidly Expanding Programming…)
.. and one of my shortest posts YET….
Just shortening the post on Real Estate Development Companies (and the Courts) I published, and having some more fun with this laughable (if it weren’t actually in place) situation! It’d be interesting to track the funds going through all those Divorce Education Providers to their final destinations.
KENTUCKY (gray-background)
(I first starting noticing this while looking at the State of Kentucky, believe it or not, who apparently got a later start than others at setting up the family courts. Kentucky doesn’t strike me as being one of the richest states around — nevertheless, they have their fairly new courthouses. There sure does seem to be some correspondence with the business of therapeutic jurisprudence — and new courthouses sprouting up (scroll down past “One Family, One Court, One Judge” to see some history of family court in the state: As their own folklore goes:
Kentucky launched an innovative and ambitious project when Jefferson County began a Family Court pilot program in 1991. It was the first such court in the state to focus solely on the needs of families and children. Family Court introduced a unique solution that would allow one judge to provide continuity by hearing all of a family’s legal problems and issues.
And also, if that judge had some conflicts of interest, to exercise them throughout the case. “Unique”? The “solution” basically defines the Unified Family Court and Conciliation Court primary thesis…
The Family Court model expanded beyond Louisville to suburban and rural areas across the commonwealth. The project’s success prompted efforts to make Family Court a permanent part of the Kentucky Constitution. Kentucky voters gave Family Court a resounding victory in November 2002 when the amendment passed in all 120 counties with more than 75 percent of the vote.
Today Family Court serves 3.2 million citizens in 71 Kentucky counties. Kentucky Family Court is so progressive and successful that it is considered a national model.
None of this was lobbied for, it just happened naturally, in response to wonderful grassroots demand for the solution, which they were fully informed just might have been made in advance preparation for receiving some “block grants to the states” (TANF, as of 1996, grants were already in progress in the 1980s) to increase fatherhood, access/visitation, co-parenting (to help eliminate or reduce child support, etc.), and other family theory stuff.. Yup, and Domestic Violence went from being a crime to a treatable disease, particularly if you are a provider:
And they have “Divorce Education” courses down to only 9 now (Used to be 11):
- Cooperative Parenting and Divorce
- This links (as previously) to an out of state provider (AOC doesn’t provide, we’re notified, of the one-size-fits all situations of conflict, almost, 8-week class you can (have to?) take. The site is Active Parenting USA in Marietta Georgia which, readers are assured: “Active Parenting Publishers provides video-based parenting courses and parenting programs to help parents rear responsible children who are able to cope with life’s challenges. Whether through a traditional parenting class or an online parenting course, parent educators find that the research-based Active Parenting programs provide the right mix of information and entertainment to help put families on the right track. This is parenting educationdesigned by an established psychologist, Dr. Michael H. Popkin, and based on sound Adlerian psychological principles.”**
- Divorce Care
- Divorced and Divorcing Parents
- Families in Transition
- Kids First
- Parents Achieving with Collaborative Teams
- Parents Are For Good
- Parents Education Clinic
- Turning It Around ***
**RE: “Cooperative Parenting” link, above (cont’d) with direct link to an on-line marketplace from Georgia, leading to another woman’s product from Pennsylvania…
“ACTIVE PARENTING” Authors and Consultants still include Ms. Termini (bottom right, of PA) and Ms. Susan Boyan (top left, of Georgia I guess). Ms. Termini’s description there (despite “co 2013” on the pages) doesn’t mention that she was working without a contract? since about 1997? (at the invitation of another Presiding Judge of a Unified Family Courthouse (The Hon. Chet Harhut) from the Lackawanna County, PA courthouse [that got raided by the FBI] and had been sued civilly (Pilchesky) for doing so, resulting in a 2011-2012 write-up from the PA AOPC. Apparently in Lackawanna having a PFA on shouldn’t really discourage the court from (forcing) $100 (each?) the couple to participate in Group Cooperative parenting. The Protection From Abuse order can be modified, and the abusive and other parent can learn from the less disturbed parents in the group (it literally says that at the Bar Association link there!
I have this printout (in fact the KY discovery is what led me to spend (waste?) considerable blogging, commenting phone and email to individuals time [[like, about a year…]] around Scranton Political Times, in hopes that someone would pick up on the theme here. Here it is, all 112++ pages. Seriously, although the piece was more aimed at (protecting, or at least enumerating) the situation with a different post person, a GAL, on page 61 bottom we are treated to the precious information, in passing, under “C. Parenting Coordination.” (I should really put this on the “Vital Links).
Despite Ms. Termini’s having had (for about fifteen years!) no contract and no one, including the AOPC, really knowing what she does (see p. 62 als0), about 10 pages of this review (Appendix 8, pp. 100-111) if you read the fine print at bottom of the pages appear to have been lifted straight from some books by Boyan & Termini. The fine print reads, “co. 1997 (right about when Welfare reform and Ms. Termini with Judge Harhut got things going), rev. Jan. 2010.” “The Psychotherapist as Parent Coordinator in High-Conflict Divorce: Strategies and Techniques.“
This, and Unified Family Courts* (see yr. 2002 technical assistance), naturally, have “nothing” to do with AFCC… and why our state family court (or, even Judicial Council/AOC/CFCC) websites and courthouses have simply become marketplaces for psychologists and psychotherapists who like each other — a lot. *In fact, I see the 2001 entry under “UFCs” mentions California:
Discussion Paper and Program on Unified Family Courts, California Administrative Office of the Courts. Presented information about Unified Family Court model during an interactive workshop (2001).
***The “it” in “Turning It Around” (last I looked) being father’s’s incarceration for nonpayment of child support. Address in fine print at bottom of the page matches the (KY) Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) Records Unit.
What I’ve been learning recently is how to look up where the money collected for, say, obtaining a record (@ $20/a pop) goes afterwards. At least in California, there are lists of Funds available to the public. They have names, and sometimes these names crop up in a piece of legislation claiming ownership of a % of them, like the Conciliation Code does to California Fund “0587” which is the Family Law Trust Fund. One among many. ANYHOW….
Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History 
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