I'm a father of an 11 year old boy and was never married to his mother in Ohio. I have custody of my son and recently married a woman that has a home in Arizona where her family is and my family all reside in Colorado. My custody papers has no mention of moving, but only visitation of which my son wants nothing to do with his mother and wants to move, too. My son has an IEP for speech and my wife has a speech pathologist that will take him as a client in Arizona. My wife is an established RN and I work as a maintenance mechanic. My son does not have a relationship with his mother, and it states in my custody paperwork that, "...mother is not emotionally available for her son."

My son's mother has never worked, by choice, and that's documented on the custody orders. She is ordered to pay me child support. So what, if anything, do I need to do in order to move my family out-of-state?

You need to go to petition the court to modify the visitation to allow you to move. If the mother does not use the visitation (any proof you have will be helpful) it shouldn't be a problem to have it modified. Do be prepared to have to pay for travel expenses for longer summer visits and such since you are the one wanting to relocate.

It really doesn't matter if the mother works or not or is ordered to pay support or not. What does matter is that if you move with out first petitioning the court you will be in contempt of the visitation order.

Bring in as much documentation of missed visits by the mother. Also solid reasons you are wanting to move and why it is in the best interest of the child. I'm not saying it isn't but those are the things that you will have to explain to the judge in order to be granted the modification.

If the mother has court ordered visitation, then you need to get the permission of the court to move. If the mother isn't exercising her visitation or if your son refuses to visit with her, you should be able to get permission. Explain how the move is in the best interests of your son.