When is parenting education required by the courts?

When is parenting education required by the courts?

Parent education becomes required when it's court-ordered. I also work with parents who come from the Department of Children and Family Services. Their child may be in foster care; there's some issue or problem there. The parents need skills. So, a lot of social workers will routinely refer parents to parenting classes, to therapy, and to other kinds of services to help strengthen the family so that it can be reunified in a healthy way. So, often there are court orders. They see results; they order parenting classes because they see profound results. The point, in court, is to reduce the recidivism rate: people going back to court, back to court, asking a judge to solve problems. I'm just shocked that they have clients who go to court over a haircut! They go to court over who's going to do the invitation for this five-year-old's birthday party and things like that! The judges don't want to see those people in their court. The parents need to learn how to deal with basic problems without turning it into the drama I was mentioning.