State Senator Andre Jacque of De Pere is continuing his active start to 2021 with another bill entitled Deployed with Dependent Reform.
Under current law, in determining the legal custody of a child, a court may not consider whether a service member has been or may be called into active duty and consequently is or may be absent from his or her home.
This bill, which Senator Jacque team up with Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt of Fond du Lac to create, prohibits a court from denying a parent who is a service member periods of physical placement with his or her child based on past or future anticipated variability in his or her schedule, living arrangements, or location due to service in the military.
Jacque said this bill is very common sense, but for some reason wasn’t in the books before.
“I think if it’s something that doesn’t occur with a certain frequency, or attract the attention of certain interest groups…I don’t know,” he said when asked why it wasn’t on the book previously. “All I know is that it was brought to my attention and I wasn’t going to sit back and not do anything with it.
Jacque said he expects the bill to pass the Senate with bi-partisan support, much as it did before the Assembly, where it was supported unanimously.
