Opinion ID: 4309230
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Custody experiment

Text: The parties agree that their son exhibited behavioral problems when he started kindergarten in 2013; psychologists diagnosed him with autism, atypical attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, unspecified anxiety disorder, and social communication disorder. To deal with these problems Darcey and Matthew agreed to try a temporary custody switch: their son would live primarily with Matthew in California for two and a half years and visit Darcey over summers and holidays. Around December 2014, when the child was six, the parties negotiated a new custody agreement that acknowledged the switch, but they did not formalize their new agreement in court. The informal new arrangement worked well for about 10 months. The child started school in California in January 2015. Matthew hired a nanny and established a rigorous routine, including many extracurricular activities. The child had fewer behavioral problems, and his grades improved. Matthew claims that his son “thrived” under the new arrangement. But the arrangement broke down in the fall of 2015 after a dispute over a planned visit by Darcey. The superior court found that the dispute generated “some angry emails,” including threats by Darcey that she would retrieve the child from California and make it difficult for Matthew to see him again. The parties filed custodyrelated motions in both California and Alaska courts; meanwhile the child remained with Matthew in California. While both cases were pending, the parties struggled to maintain civil communication with each other. The California court awarded Darcey a visit with her son in November 2015 when she was there for a hearing; the visit was not a success, though the parties disagree on why. In March 2016 Matthew moved the child to a new school following a bullying incident and failed to immediately inform Darcey of the change. In April the Alaska superior court, retaining jurisdiction, awarded Darcey -3- 7281 spring-break visitation, requiring only that she provide an itinerary. The parties disagreed about how specific the itinerary needed to be, and Darcey ultimately canceled her visit. The superior court described the “failure” of the spring break visit as “disturbing” and “highly unfortunate.”