Regroup’s goal is to partner with parents and attorneys to create durable agreements that benefit families. We provide a no-obligation, no-cost consultation with attorneys and pro se parents to discuss our services and the needs of the family.
Brief Focused Assessment; $5,000
A BFA is a narrowly defined, issue specific assessment. BFA’s are not intended to replace a comprehensive custody and parenting time evaluation. BFA’s provide parties with objective information about specific parenting concerns and offer options for addressing those concerns, leaving decision making in the hands of the parties and the judicial officer. BFA’s are sometimes utilized to allow a comprehensive custody evaluation to proceed.
BFA Process:
Interviews with both parents
Parent-child observations
Interviews with children
Review of relevant collateral information
Attorney/Evaluator feedback session
BFA Summary
There are two types of BFA’s:
- Child Centered Brief Focused Assessment; this can include matters such as:
A child refusing parenting time.
Child requesting a significant downward shift in parenting time.
Child initiated complaints related to parenting environment or capacity. - Parent Centered Brief Focused Assessment; this can include matters such as:
Parent initiated complaint(s) about parenting capacity or environment.
Parent limiting parenting time due to stated safety concerns, such as mental health, chemical health, domestic violence, or concerns related to inappropriate parenting.
Parent’s alleged inability to meet child’s developmental needs.
Substantiated or unsubstantiated allegations related to Child Protection investigations.
Custody and Parenting Time Evaluation, $8,000
Regroup’s Custody Evaluation Process
No two families are alike so the following overview may vary depending on your family’s circumstances, but this will give you a general idea of what to expect from the process:
- If there are no legal orders or other extenuating circumstances, the first meeting will be facilitated virtually with both parents present. This is a housekeeping meeting that does not require interaction between the parents. Bob will give a brief overview of his professional background, philosophy of working with families, and talk about the nuts and bolts of the evaluation process from start to finish. This meeting will take approximately one hour; all subsequent evaluator/parent meetings will be scheduled for two and a half hours.
- The next step is individual parent meeting number one at Regroup’s office to go over the data collection forms and give the parent an opportunity to discuss their custody and parenting time proposal for the child(ren). An interview with the child(ren) will be scheduled if the child(ren) are of an age to have an independent and reliable preference (generally age seven up but this can vary depending on the child). These are gentle interviews conducted by Bob who has over thirty years of experience talking with children throughout his career in Child Protection and Family Court.
- Individual parent meeting number two is scheduled thirty to forty five days after individual parent meeting number one and can be facilitated virtually or in-person based on the preference of the parent. Collateral information and the Best Interest Factors are generally covered at this meeting and individual one-hour parenting observations are scheduled. Bob comes to each parent’s home and spends one hour observing parent-child(ren) interactions.
- Individual parent meeting number three is generally scheduled for two to three weeks after the individual parenting observations. Information covered at this meeting includes the parent’s impression of the parenting observation and finishing up discussing outstanding Best Interest Factors, collateral information, and any other outstanding issues.
- The evaluator/counsel meeting concludes the investigation phase of the evaluation process. Bob meets with counsel via Zoom for approximately one hour and shares impressions of the parents, children, family and what custody and parenting time recommendations would be made if the parents contracted to have the custody and parenting time report written. At the conclusion of the meeting, Bob emails counsel a two-page summary of recommendations. The purpose of this meeting is to give objective and subjective information to encourage settlement.
Custody and Parenting Time Evaluation written report: $6,000
Social Early Neutral Evaluation: As set by Court order or Judicial District
Parent Coaching: $250/hour
Mediation: $300/hour