Q: How can I file for custody of my step daughter? Her mother is unemployed and letting her miss school whenever she wants.
My stepdaughters mother is unemployed, currently lives off my husbands child support, and her current boyfriend, allows her daughter to skip school and be tardy all the time which the school principal and counselers got involved, she refuses to get a job claiming she has siatic nerve damage yet there are no medical papers saying she can't work. The $500 a month she gets in child support does not go to my step daughter cause my husband and I buy her everything and she is not putting it towards a college fund for her. As far as education, it is extremely important to us but not her mother. My husband and I do not want our daughter growing up thinking she doesn't need school and that its ok to live off another man and never have to work. We would like custody of her.
A:
Your husband, not you, should be seeking custody. You as a non-biological or adopted parent have an uphill battle in obtaining custody over a biological parent. If you have concerns, then your husband should contact the mother of the child to see if she would give him custody (or at least modify the current custody arrangement). If she agrees, then they should enter into a modify agreement, modify child support, and enter the changes with the court that entered the original order. if she does not, then he should consult an attorney and file for modification.
Proving that the parent receiving child support for a child is not spending it on the child is extremely hard to prove and irrelevant in a custody determination case.
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