A Note from Paul McCraw

Chairman of the Board of Directors

As Fathers for Equal Rights, Inc. (F.E.R.) is now 45 years old. We are now Adopting Mothers, as to be all inclusive. I've been involved as member of F.E.R. since 2003. It's been both a difficult personal struggle and a great honor to lead this group the past few years. During our time we have directly assisted over 45,000 members. I can remember a time when the legal community of Judges, Court Clerks, and attorneys looked at us as "those guys", "Stay away from those guys", "Those guys are just a bunch of radicals", ( and we were )  they would say "Those guys will just get you in trouble."  Our members say just the opposite. We now have influence and commanded a level of usefulness in the legal community. Now we receive as many as 2000 referrals a year from Judges, Court Clerks, Attorneys, Bar Associations, the Child Support Division of the Office of the Attorney General, Children's Protective Services, Police Departments, Counselors and many other non-profit groups. I've always taken the position that we can better affect change by being part of the in-crowd. We are so proud that three of our past volunteer attorneys are now Family Court Judges in Dallas.

We've witnessed some amazing changes in family law and the Texas Family Code, some of which has been written by our members. There's been a family law attitude push towards more responsible co-parenting over the past 15 years. Judges are more willing to harshly enforce visitation and more accepting of 50/50 visitation schedules. Some of these changes are reflected in the Texas Family Code. Section 153.015 allows the court to establish specific dates and times for both phone and internet access with the kids. Section 153.317, "Alternative Beginning and Ending Possession Times", will get a non-custodial parent within 23 nights of a 50/50 schedule with some contact with the children 53% of the days of the year.  A paternity fraud bill, written by one of our members was passed in 2011 and tweaked in 2013. Family Code 161.005 "Termination When Parent is Petitioner", allows termination based on genetic testing that excludes the father.

It's been a pleasure to see the change our members go through from dragging themselves to our offices to becoming full-time active parents of their children.These Members now also volunteer with Mothers and Fathers for Equal Rights. It's time to retire and turn this over to the next generation.

Thank You