Filing a Parenting Plan and request for Child Support

First things first. This is not DIY territory. At all. You need an attorney. I am very familiar with the child custody laws in WA, and if I was in your position, I would hire an attorney.

Some ideas on what to expect.

The attorney can get a temporary parenting plan put in place, and temporary support ordered.

Under the circumstances that you describe, your attorney might want to start things out with supervised visitation. There, he would see the child at a place, like the Indaba Center.

A GAL (Guardian Ad Litem) will likely be appointed. This is an attorney who advocates for the best interest of the child. The GAL will conduct interviews with both parents, the child, teachers, etc., and come up with recommendations which will be weighed heavily by the courts.

Eventually, a final parenting plan will be ordered, and child support ordered.

Based on what I am seeing there will likely be prerequisites for continuing therapy and meds. He would need to complete and participate in whatever therapy/classes ordered by the courts.

The courts will probably want to transition him to unsupervised over night visitation after prerequisites are met.

Also, the GAL is frequently used as a case manager to help the parents transition into the parenting plan, and to act as a non-binding mediator for the early disputes.

Child support enforcement in WA is not terribly aggressive... at least until the back support starts to hit around $5K. To get things enforced before then, you usually have to go through contempt of court process.

After reading this, go back to the first statement. You need an attorney to help you through this stuff.

/r/legaladvice Thread