My question involves education law in the State of: Illinois.
I am the stepmother of the children. My husband has filed to change custody. Custody, currently, is "equal" everything, with mother being primary custodian. The mother is on her sixth marriage: second in two years, fourth pregnancy and there's extensive, documented medical, (and arguable)educational and emotional neglect. We live in CA. My husband has been EXPLICITLY clear with the school, about communicating equally with him, and has attempted to be involved with every aspect of their education (after knowledge of Mom's neglect of the IEP services and other issues). The stepfather of the mother of the children has worked as a teacher at the (very small) school, for 20+ years--so the school is showing favoritism and protectionism toward the mother. The school has engaged in some questionable practices, namely: refusing to communicate in writing with Dad, communicating vaguely, changing the report card comments to innocuous statements such as: "Looking forward to seeing you at parent-teacher conference," etc. Most recently, we found that a school counselor met with the children (ages 5 and 8), at their mother's request, to ask the question, "Do you have any concerns about visiting your dad?" She later gave a reference in the custody evaluation, mentioning this meeting she had, last school year. Dad was never notified, would have wanted to be notified, would have given valuable input, and DID have this instruction in e-mail record (with the Principal), months prior. Consequently, the custody evaluator noted a "possible anxiety disorder" in one of the children and noted questions as to why the children seemed so unusually worried with her. We NEVER mentioned the custody dispute to the children. It all adds up now! Due to the school's BIASED participation, the children have inferred that Dad is someone to be feared. What steps do we take to hold this school/individual accountable?

