The Focused Assessment (FA) (formerly the Limited Family Assessment (LFA) is designed to address specific issues for which the court needs additional information. It is tailored to be a cost effective way to answer a limited number of issues. The court may only desire that the evaluator conducting a FA focus on one portion of ARS §25-403. With the FA, psychological testing may or may not be a part of the evaluation process. As the evaluator is not expected to conduct a full ARS §25-403 analysis, the evaluator is not expected to provide specific recommendations with regard to legal decision-making or parenting time schedules.
By way of example, some questions that may prompt the need for an FA could involve:
- Child maltreatment allegations (e.g., inadvertent/isolated incidents of maltreatment)
- A Child interview (e.g., custodial preference and whether preference based on developmentally appropriate reasoning)
- Domestic violence (e.g. occasional instances of push/shove/slap)
- Educational needs of a child
- Grandparents’ request for access time
- A Home study (e.g. safety concerns)
- Mental health and parenting capacity evaluation of one parent, e.g., substance abuse, mood disorder, personality disorder, criminal history
- Legal decision-making recommendations (e.g. ability to co-parent)
- Parenting time-share recommendations
- Safe Exchanges
- Relationship of child with parents and/or significant others (e.g. siblings, Step-parents, Grandparents)