I'm new here, so sorry if this has been talked about before. I have 2 children (10 and 13) with my ex-husband. Currently they live with me most of the time, and attend school in the same district they've been in since starting school. My ex moved to a town about 45 minutes away. The kids have been on the same visitation schedule since they've been 4 and 6 (one weeknight with my ex from 5:30-8:30 and every other weekend), except that in recent years my ex has dropped seeing them on the mid-week night, and often waits to get them Saturday morning instead of Friday night. He also does not use even close to all of his available parenting time during holidays or days off school.
Our oldest child will be entering high school in another year and a half. My ex husband happens to live near a high school that is considered one of the most competitive and best in the state. Our high school, in the district where the kids have always lived, is pretty good too, but obviously isn't ranked quite as high.
My ex is now starting to push the idea that when the oldest reaches high school, we should modify visitation so that this child would attend school and live most of the time with my ex, while the younger child would remain here. Presumably he'd also want the younger to eventually move in with him as well.
My ex is not the worst parent in the world, he is just a very hands-off parent. He has never chosen to be involved in the kids school life, he doesn't know their friends, he doesn't want to be inconvenienced by them. He loves them in his own way, and the visitation schedule we have settled into REALLY seems to make the kids happy. (When he saw them slightly more frequently, they complained/cried/got stressed about having to go visit him). But I would not trust him to be able to actually RAISE our children and help them through the teenage years by having them predominantly live with him, and I certainly don't want them to be split up, even for just a couple of years.
Has anybody had an battles with trying to modify visitation based on the quality of the school district? From what I have read, the quality of one school district over another is a legitimate concern to the courts. Our school district here is perfectly fine, but there is no way it can compete with the high school near my ex, and there is no way we can afford to live in his expensive area.
I know my ex, and I feel this will likely lead to a court battle, IF he can get his current wife in a battle mood and on board with the idea of being in charge of our oldest child while in high school (because there is no way he is going to take on that responsibility himself). Any experience or words of advice are welcome!
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modifying visitation to change school districts
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