UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more: The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: About a year ago we posted a series entitled Who is a Legal Parent? and addressed the many ways in which a parent (someone who takes care of a child) can also be considered a legal parent (someone who the court recognizes has rights and obligations relating to the care of a child).   In the Venn Diagram to the left you can see that these two categories overlap but not everyone who is a legal parent acts like a parent, and not everyone who acts like a parent is recognized as a legal parent. Today, the Massachusetts SJC expanded the purple section of this diagram, recognizing that a non-biological parent who "jointly with the mother, received the child into their home and openly ...

Taking the course is a prerequisite for getting divorced in MA. As of May 1st, 2016 Massachusetts has announced and ordered new changes to the Parenting Education programs for all divorce cases that involve minor children ( Standing Order 2-16 ). The court  has ordered that all parties in a divorce action must register with an approved program within thirty days of service of a Complaint for Divorce and prior to the hearing on a Joint Petition for Divorce. ( a list of the approved programs can be found here ) Once registered parties must file the " Affidavit Confirming Registration at Parent Education Program ."  This is a new form and timeline, but the programs themselves are not new. This is not a program that teaches people how to parent their children, but rather a program designed to help divorcing parents understand what the challenges their children will face because of the divorce.  It is ideal that the program be taken as soon after the parties decide t...

UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more:  The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: Many have tried to frame the debate over same-sex marriage or LGBT rights to be a debate over the changing definition of parents and family.  But the truth is that the definition of family has been constantly changing and evolving and the definition of a parent has always differed from family to family.  Some people are raised by a male and female parent, and others are raised by a grandparent, or one parent, or two female or two male parents.  And many children have more than two people that function as parents and role models. The definition of biological parent is clear; requiring a male and female genetic component to create a child.  However, definin...