As Passed by the House 1 123rd General Assembly 4 Regular Session H. B. No. 537 5 1999-2000 6 REPRESENTATIVES CALVERT-WILLAMOWSKI-VAN VYVEN-HOLLISTER- 8 CLANCY-BUEHRER-AUSTRIA-WINKLER-TERWILLEGER-TIBERI-MOTTLEY- 9 PERRY-AMSTUTZ-J. BEATTY-O'BRIEN-ROBINSON-D. MILLER-TRAKAS- 10 ROMAN-STEVENS-WIDENER-VESPER-HARRIS-JACOBSON 11 _________________________________________________________________ 12 A B I L L To amend section 3109.053 of the Revised Code to 14 allow a court in a domestic relations proceeding 15 to require that children attend parenting classes or counseling with the children's parents. 16 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO: 17 Section 1. That section 3109.053 of the Revised Code be 19 amended to read as follows: 20 Sec. 3109.053. In any divorce, legal separation, or 29 annulment proceeding and in any proceeding pertaining to the 30 allocation of parental rights and responsibilities for the care 31 of a child, the court may require, by rule or otherwise, that the 32 parents attend classes on parenting or other related issues or 33 obtain counseling before the court issues an order allocating the 34 parental rights and responsibilities for the care of the minor 35 children of the marriage. IF A COURT IN ANY PROCEEDING REQUIRES 36 PARENTS TO ATTEND CLASSES ON PARENTING OR OTHER RELATED ISSUES OR 37 TO OBTAIN COUNSELING, THE COURT MAY REQUIRE THAT THE PARENTS' 38 CHILDREN ATTEND THE CLASSES OR COUNSELING WITH THE PARENTS. If 39 the court orders the parents to attend classes or obtain 40 counseling, the court shall impose the cost of the classes and 41 counseling on, and may allocate the costs between, the parents, 42 except that if the court determines that both parents are 43 indigent, the court shall not impose the cost of the classes or 2 counseling on the parents. 44 Section 2. That existing section 3109.053 of the Revised 46 Code is hereby repealed. 47