PARENTS ASKS FOR THE COURT’S DETERMINATION ON WHERE THEIR CHILD SHOULD BE ENROLLED
Allinson & Eadie [2020] FCCA 3558 (16 November 2020)
This is an interim parenting proceeding where the parties argue on which school their child should attend.
Facts:
This is an application by the parties with respect to schooling for their son, X, who was born in 2015.
The school proposed by the mother is a Catholic school, B School at Suburb C, which is about 10 minutes drive from her home. It is also accessible from the father's home, although it takes in the order of 20 minutes. The father proposes Suburb D School. He sees that school as being more appropriate to meet X's needs. It takes about 25 minutes to drive there from the mother’s home.
The current time arrangement has X spending most of the time in his mother's household, although he spends substantial and significant time with his father. The father says that as he is not working, he is more available than the mother. If there was a problem for X at school, he would be able to pick him up and be more flexible in that regard. There is nothing that suggests the mother would not be able to make appropriate arrangements for X to be collected if that was necessary during the time that he lives in her home.
Issue: Which school should the child be enrolled?
Held:
In terms of determining the matter, for X the most significant aspect is going to school from the home at which he resides most of the time, that being the mother's home at the moment. When there are two schools that will otherwise meet his needs, the court finds that is the determining factor in the child attending B School at Suburb C. The orders sought by the mother are to facilitate X’s enrollment, and to ensure that the forms are signed so that there is no issue with X’s attendance.
Conclusion: The parties shall do all acts and things so that the X shall be enrolled at B School in Suburb C for the school year commencing 2021.