The Path Back

Six states have passed a strong Shared Parenting presumption. Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Florida, Missouri, and Mississippi. Finish the job in 2027 and South Dakota becomes the seventh.

I would rather we were first at something, though, and there is one piece of the 2027 bill that no other state has put into law. It is the piece I care about most.

A Shared Parenting presumption says fit parents begin equal. When a marriage with minor children ends, the court starts from joint physical custody and departs from it only on real evidence: abuse, neglect, substance abuse, danger to the child. That is the correct starting point and it is what SB 172 nearly accomplished in 2025, failing the House by one vote after clearing the Senate twenty to thirteen.

Here is the question none of those six laws answers. What happens to the parent who has already lost time?

The parent who made real mistakes three years ago and has done the work since. The parent pushed out by allegations that never became findings. The parent who fell apart at the worst moment of his life, got help, got sober, got stable, and now stands outside a door the law gives him no way to reopen.

What the 2027 bill adds

When a parent has lost parenting time, the court must provide a clear and reasonable route to restoration. Counseling. Testing. Completed programs. Supervised steps that demonstrate fitness over time. Each step passed reopens more of the door, and the child's safety stays at the center of every one of them.

I want to be precise about what this is not, because the word restoration makes people nervous and they are entitled to an answer rather than reassurance.

A parent who will not do the work never advances down the path. A parent who presents a danger never starts it. The Path Back exists only for the parent willing to be tested, supervised, and proven. What it removes is permanence without purpose, which is the current reality: losing time means losing your child, and nothing you do afterward changes the arithmetic.

Why I keep coming back to this one

A family court case is what brought my son to Rapid City eight years ago, and it is what brought me here after him.

Through Kids Deserve Dads, the nonprofit I founded in 2017, I have heard from thousands of parents around the country. The most common story is not the custody battle itself. It is what comes after it: a fit, healed, willing parent with no road back to his kid. The system never built the road, so we will build it in statute.

We believe people can change in this state. We believe in second chances earned through work rather than handed out. We believe a child's best interest includes the parent who fought his way back to fitness.

Kentucky led in 2017. South Dakota can lead in 2027.

Read the full eleven-bill Family Court Reform Stack at zac4sd.com/platform/family-court-reform. If you believe in the Path Back, send this to one parent who needs to hear it.

Strong Families. Strong South Dakota.