My Ex & his new wife refuse to give our 10 year old son his…

Neither the school nor the doctor will have any legal authority to make an order about medication. But a family court can make an order that requires a parent to give medication to a child.

To succeed in getting such an order, you will need the type of evidence that you are collecting. You will need to prove that the ex is aware of the doctor's recommendation that the child take this medication, and that it is available to him to provide to the child. That could come from your own evidence of discussions you have had, or copies of letters or emails to him or his lawyer. You need to prove he is not doing so, such as repeating comments from your son if he is being told by his father not to take it. So that sets out the basic facts. And it may be that these facts are not even in dispute.

The next step to be proved is the real crux of the issue, which is proving that the medication is in the child's best interests. This is likely where the real argument will be. Certainly having a prescription for the medication is a strong indicator that this is seen as best from a medical professional, and it helps that the person is a specialist, a pedeiatriction. It would be best to get a report from the doctor as to what assessments were done by her to determine that this medication was warranted, and the consequences to your son in not aking the medication 50% of the time, and that report can be filed with the court.

You will also benefit by getting reports from the school as to their observations of your son and any problems/improvements he has from week to week. They cannot give opinions as to what is best, XXXXX XXXXX doctor that can be qualified as an expert witness by the court, (unless they can state in the report that they have had special training or experience with this specific issue) and should try to limit their reports to what they have seen and heard first hand. If one of the teachers has had some special training regarding ADHD, then that teacher could also give an opinion as to what he or she has observed.

You, or other family or friends that have opportunity to make the observations, can also give the court as much information as possible about the differences in behaviour from time to time that you have noticed.

You can also give the court the evidence about your 12 year old, as that is an indication that the medication can work and that the ex's position on this seems to be inconsistent and maybe not well thought out.

Aside from seeking a court order, the only other option is to get consent of the father to start giving the medication. You could try to avoid court by discussing this with him, perhaps in mediation. Or in basically presented him, maybe through a lawyer, the above evidence and giving him one last chance to start properly administering the medication or you willl pull the trigger and seek a court order, along with court costs payable by him. Sometimes the threat of a court order can help to avoid the need for an order. But if he wants to be totally stubborn, and will not discuss this or change his position despite what informtion you give him to show it is in the son's best interests, then applying to the court is the remaining option.