An Act Regarding Parental Rights
Maine Legislature, Session 128, LD 0472
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: ESPLING, SAMPSON
Amends: 19-A MRSA §1651, 19-A MRSA §1653

Legislative Document
No. 472
H.P. 335
House of Representatives, February 9, 2017
An Act Regarding Parental Rights
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative ESPLING of New Gloucester.
Cosponsored by Representative: SAMPSON of Alfred.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  19-A MRSA §1651, as amended by PL 2015, c. 296, Pt. C, §17 and 
affected by Pt. D, §1, is further amended to read: 
§1651.  Parents joint natural guardians of children 
The parents are the joint natural guardians of their minor children and are jointly 
entitled to the care, custody, control, services and earnings of their children each parent 
has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education and care 
of their minor children. Neither parent has any rights paramount to the rights of the other 
with reference to any matter affecting their children. 
Sec. 2.  19-A MRSA §1653, sub-§2, as amended by PL 2015, c. 494, Pt. A, §11, 
is further amended to read: 
2.  Parental rights and responsibilities; order.  This subsection governs parental 
rights and responsibilities and court orders for parental rights and responsibilities.  Unless 
it finds that a compelling state interest justifies limiting the rights of a parent, the court 
shall order shared parental rights and responsibilities.  An order limiting the rights of a 
parent must be narrowly tailored to achieve the compelling state interest and must impose 
the least restrictive limitation necessary to achieve that interest. 
A.  When the parents have agreed to an award of shared parental rights and 
responsibilities or so agree in open court, the court shall make that award unless there 
is substantial evidence that it should not be ordered. The court shall state in its 
decision the reasons for not ordering a shared parental rights and responsibilities 
award agreed to by the parents. 
B.  The court may award reasonable rights of contact with a minor child to a 3rd 
person. 
C.  The court may award parental rights and responsibilities with respect to the child 
to a 3rd person, a suitable society or institution for the care and protection of children 
or the department, upon a finding that awarding parental rights and responsibilities to 
either or both parents will place the child in jeopardy as defined in Title 22, section 
4002, subsection 6. 
D.  The order of the court awarding parental rights and responsibilities must include 
the following: 
(1)  Allocated parental rights and responsibilities, shared parental rights and 
responsibilities or sole parental rights and responsibilities, according to the best 
interest of the child as provided in subsection 3.  An award of shared parental 
rights and responsibilities may include either an allocation of the child's primary 
residential care to one parent and rights of parent-child contact to the other 
parent, or a sharing of the child's primary residential care by both parents.  If 
either or both parents request an award of shared primary residential care and the 
court does not award shared primary residential care of the child, the court shall 
state in its decision the reasons why shared primary residential care is not in the 
best interest of the child; 
(2)  Conditions of parent-child contact in cases involving domestic abuse as 
provided in subsection 6; 
(3)  A provision for child support as provided in subsection 8 or a statement of 
the reasons for not ordering child support; 
(4)  A statement that each parent must have access to records and information 
pertaining to a minor child, including, but not limited to, medical, dental and 
school records and other information on school activities, whether or not the 
child resides with the parent, unless that access is found not to be in the best 
interest of the child or that access is found to be sought for the purpose of causing 
detriment to the other parent. If that access is not ordered, the court shall state in 
the order its reasons for denying that access; 
(5)  A statement that violation of the order may result in a finding of contempt 
and imposition of sanctions as provided in subsection 7; and 
(6)  A statement of the definition of shared parental rights and responsibilities 
contained in section 1501, subsection 5, if the order of the court awards shared 
parental rights and responsibilities. 
An order modifying a previous order is not required to include provisions of the 
previous order that are not modified. 
E.  The order of the court may not include a requirement that the State pay for the 
defendant to attend a batterers' intervention program unless the program is certified 
under section 4014. 
SUMMARY 
This bill amends the law to stipulate that parents have a fundamental right to make 
decisions concerning the upbringing, education and care of their minor children and 
prevents courts from limiting these fundamental parental rights unless the limitation is 
supported by a compelling state interest and narrowly tailored to serve that interest 
through the least restrictive means possible.