Gatekeeping access to the child's providers, records, and information

Definition

Controlling or restricting the other parent's independent access to the child's medical, mental-health, educational, or extracurricular providers, records, or related information channels, such that the gatekeeping parent becomes the obligatory intermediary. This may occur through instructions to third parties, unilateral rules imposed on the co-parent, or both.

How it operates

Instructing providers or institutions that the other parent may not contact them, or that all communication must be routed through the abuser. Imposing a rule that the other parent is prohibited from contacting providers or must obtain permission or route all inquiries through the abuser, when the governing court order does not expressly authorize exclusive communication rights. Withholding, delaying, or selectively controlling access to portals, records, appointment information, or provider contact details. Treating final decision-making authority as automatically conferring exclusive contact or information-control rights when the order does not so state.

Function

Monopolize information and institutional relationships.

Harm

For the children: delayed or incomplete care and the loss of two-parent informational support. For the target: exclusion from knowledge required to parent effectively.

Why this is coercive control

Accurate implementation of a court order that expressly grants exclusive communication rights, and ordinary logistical coordination through a designated channel, is not this conduct. The conduct here monopolizes information and institutional relationships.

Constructed example

“Going forward, all communication with the children's teachers need to come through me. I've already let the admin office know that I am the point of contact, not you.”

Fictitious. Written to illustrate the behavior. Not a case.