CHILDREN'S BILL OF RIGHTS

A child has a moral right and should have a legal right:

1.               To receive parental love and affection, discipline and guidance, and to grow to maturity in a home environment which enables him/her to develop into a mature and responsible adult;

2.               To be supported, maintained, and educated to the best of parental ability, in return for which he/she has the moral duty to honor his/her father and mother;

3.               To be reared as a person, within the family, at school and before the law;

4.               To receive fair treatment from all in authority;

5.               To be heard and listened to;

6.               To earn and keep his/her own earnings;

7.               To seek and obtain medical care and treatment and counseling;

8.               To emancipation from the parent-child relationship when that relationship has broken down, the child has left home due to abuse, neglect, serious family conflict, or other sufficient cause, and his/her best interest would be served by the termination of parental authority;

9.               To be free of legal disabilities or incapabilities save where such are convincingly shown to be necessary and protective of the actual best interests of the child;

10.            To receive special care, consideration, and protection in the administration of law or justice so that his/her best interests always are a paramount factor;

11.            To believe that he/she has the love and respect of each parent and that each parent is worthy of his/her love and respect; and

12.            To be free of the adverse influence of quarrelsome parents; to be free of parental efforts to alienate the child from the other parent.

Document is from the Parenting Plan for the Twelfth Judicial Circuit