Initiatives to encourage parent and child togetherness are yet another approach incorporated into parental responsibility legislation in some States. In the past 2 years, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas have enacted legislation that requires parents and children to participate in community service activities after the youth has been in trouble with the law. In addition, new laws in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Oregon require parents to attend counseling or other court-ordered treatment programs. Recent legislation in Arkansas, Colorado, Texas, and Wisconsin requires adult participation in parent training and responsibility courses. Often, involvement in these types of programs is a diversion option, with participation deferring any further punitive sanction from the court.
Some legal scholars say legislation that attempts to define parent behavior is worded vaguely.
This vagueness makes it difficult for ordinary citizens to understand what type of behavior falls within the purview of the law. The inability of the original statute to define practical, realistic, and comprehensible standards for the court to use consistently in determining parental negligence or incompetence is what led to the laws in these States being declared unconstitutional. 81 Attempts to prescribe parent behavior may violate the established privacy right in child rearing. This fundamental right to privacy in family matters was established by the U.S. Supreme Court with two cases in the mid-1920's, Meyer v. Nebraska 82 and Pierce v. Society of Sisters . In each case, the High Court restricted the State from impinging on parents' authority to raise a child.