“Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.”
John F Kennedy
In last month’s enews, we talked about Kayden’s Law & Kyra’s Law and stated that there is much work that needs to be done in the courts across the country to protect children when custody cases are being settled. Various states, various attempts to make laws, without in-depth understanding of the dynamics and nuances of domestic violence, power and control tactics, coercive control and the lengths some people will go to, to deprive the other parent of that which they love most.
50/50 Presumption Bill.
Another dive into child custody and custody/visitation practices in family courts reveals the 50/50 presumption bill. This is proposed legislation introduced in various US states such as South Carolina, Michigan and New York, that requires family courts to start child custody cases with a legal presumption that equal (50/50) shared parenting time is in the best interest of the child. http://www.misenategop.com, dated April 2026; http://www.nysenate.gov Senate Bill S4797; http://www.wistv.co , dated April 2, 2026.
According to the domesticshelters.org, Facebook post on July 24, 2026, “when 50/50 custody becomes the default, judges can lose flexibility to prioritize safety, especially in families dealing with coercive control or domestic abuse. These bills can also hit mothers and kids hardest by ignoring real caregiving patterns, shifting legal burdens onto survivors, and giving abusive partners another way to keep control through drawn-out court battles.”
Parental Alienation
“Parental alienation” is a hot-button word. According to domesticshelters.org, “parental alienation is a … tactic where one parent (usually an abusive partner and typically the father) accuses the other parent (or the protective parent, usually the mother) of brainwashing or manipulating children as a reason why they don’t want to visit the father.” It seems that a parent has only to speak those words and a whole new trajectory is created in a custody case or other court litigation case. “In domestic violence cases, this is especially frightening, putting children at risk of being subjected to time alone with an abusive parent.” Survivors’ allegations of domestic violence are being used by the abuser in court as proof of parental alienation instead of using them as a reason to investigate domestic violence.
Barry Goldstein and Veronica York argue that “alienation” frameworks used in custody litigation, ranging from Parental Alienation Syndrome to “gatekeeping,” lack scientific support and operate as gender-biased tools that frequently assist abusive fathers. In Removing Bias from Alienation Theories, a video by domesticshelters.org, Barry Goldstein and Veronica York, show how a mother’s protective parenting is routinely mischaracterized as alienation while fathers’ coercive control, litigation abuse, intimidation, and interference with children’s medical and mental health care are minimized or ignored. Goldstein and York propose reforms to remove bias: evaluate both parents’ conduct, investigate abuse and trauma as primary explanations for child resistance, require evidence rather than assumptions, and adopt trauma-informed, DV-informed decision-making that prioritizes children’s safety and attachment to the non-abusive parent.
Reunification Camps – Forced Love
Often associated with the allegation of “parental alienation”, a judge may decide to resolve the allegation with an assignment to a reunification camp.
“Family court judges around the U.S. are ordering children be taken by force from protective parents and sent away with abusers”, stated Amanda Kippert, domesticshelters.org in a February 2024 report. Children are assigned to stay at these “camps” until they renounce their mother and express a desire to be with the (abusing) parent. In that same report, Ms. Kippert reported that “Colorado was the first state in the nation to ban reunification camps, thanks to Kayden’s Law”. She stated that “California would soon follow suit, having passed Piqui’s Law in September of 2023. Both bills were named after children were killed by abusive parents in unsupervised custody visits and both place much stricter qualifiers on family courts when making custody decisions”.
In a September 2025 article for domesticshelters.org, Ms. Kippert again emphasizes that ”the general public needs to be informed that the family court is not structured as a safe haven for women escaping abuse” stated Jill Montes in this article, “as long as the ‘best interest’ standard prioritizes fathers’ rights over a child’s right to safety, family court will continue to result in tragic outcomes.”
According to a google search for “does Washington State have reunification camps, “Washington State does not operate or fund private, court-ordered “reunification camps” (intensive programs used in custody disputes for alleged parental alienation), but it does support positive family reunification events …” Further down in the same search “Washington State family courts may order professional outpatient reunification therapy, but private, high-cost multi-day intensive “reunification camps” are controversial, largely unregulated commercial programs rather than state-run facilities”. The article then provides a link to http://www.fcpsychexperts.com: Punished for Protection: The Hidden Cost of Shielding Children from Abusive Fathers
Missions Fest Seattle is coming soon!
Oct. 16 & 17, Eastside Church in Bothell (14520 100th Ave, NE). We’ll be there with tools, resources and Hope! Stop by and see us at our booth. Please register at Missions Fest Seattle 2026.
Scripture Verse
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24
