Custody

If any court has determined that a parent has sexually abused his/her child, the judge cannot allow any contact between the abusive parent and the child until the abusive parent successfully completes a treatment program designed for such sexual abusers. Once the treatment is completed, the judge could only award supervised parenting time if the judge believes that supervised parenting time is in the child’s best interests. However, contact between the abusive parent and the child can only take place as follows:

• in a therapeutic setting;
• facilitated by a therapist as part of a sexual abuse treatment program; and
• only when the therapist for the abusive parent and the therapist for the abused child agree that contact serves a therapeutic purpose and is in the best interests of the child.^1|

^​1 N.D. Cent. Code § 14-09-29(3)