AFCC Model Standards
Definition
Association of Family and Conciliation Courts Model Standards of Practice for Child Custody Evaluation (2006, updated 2022); the primary professional standard for custody evaluation methodology across common-law jurisdictions, addressing evaluator competence, protocol, testing, special issues, and report writing.
- Body
- Association of Family and Conciliation Courts
- First issued
- 2006
- Updated
- 2022
- Scope
- Evaluator competence, protocol, testing, reporting
Common questions
Are the AFCC Model Standards legally binding on a custody evaluator?+
They function as a professional practice standard rather than statute, but courts and licensing boards commonly reference them when judging whether an evaluator's methodology met the accepted standard of care.
What is one area the standards address beyond testing procedure?+
They set expectations for handling special issues such as allegations of domestic violence or substance abuse during an evaluation, alongside baseline rules on evaluator qualification and report structure.
Related terms
- Cafcass Section-7 Report
- A report on a child's welfare prepared by a Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service officer or appointed expert under...
- Coercive Control
- A pattern of behaviour in intimate relationships that seeks to deny autonomy and dominate the victim through means including isolation, monitoring, financial...
- CTS2 (Revised Conflict Tactics Scales)
- Straus et al. (1996) instrument for quantifying domestic violence history through self-report, used in research contexts in custody evaluations; its use in...
- Gaurav Nagpal V. Sumedha Nagpal (2008)
- Supreme Court of India decision affirming that the welfare of the minor is the first and paramount consideration in custody proceedings, overriding...
- Hizanat
- The Muslim personal law doctrine of maternal preferential custody rights for young children, applying specific age thresholds for boys and girls; Indian...
- Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS)
- A construct proposed by Richard Gardner in the 1980s describing children's unjustified denigration of one parent as resulting from the other parent's...
- Welfare of the Child (Paramount Consideration)
- The overriding legal test in custody determinations across common-law jurisdictions, including India (Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act 1956 § 13, as applied...