Fathers Day focuses our attention on the importance of the role of fathers in children's lives. As perennial as the traditional Fathers Day gifts, pronouncements on the virtues of fatherhood by elected officials such as Barack Obama are offered to reinforce its value.

When tied to proposed legislation, these statements have often included a suggestion that many fathers need to act more responsibly.

Likewise, the current presumptions of Illinois family courts that ensure divorced fathers' access to their children influence our perceptions of the value of father engagement.

Their minimum standards for the parenting roles of separated fathers underwrites the value by which all fathers, married and separated, are measured.

The de facto minimum parenting schedule used by Illinois courts remains "every other weekend" with a weekly non-overnight "visit."

This is what most divorcing fathers have to contend with. It is a minimal parenting schedule that is, according to a well-respected, national child development specialist, "child-unfriendly" and befitting of only "disinterested" fathers.

Illinois judges, family court protocols and many legislators have continued to acquiesce over the past decades to this standard. It is a standard that also forms a barrier for some fathers who want to act more responsibly.

The Illinois presumed parenting schedule prevails in family court regardless of the father's close geographic proximity and track record of responsible fathering.

It is a cookie-cutter presumption that states, in effect, "fathers need not put their children to bed, help them with their homework, nor help get them ready for school" - the very activities associated with being a responsible father.

The Children's Rights Council of Illinois provided new minimum guidelines to reform our judicial presumptions at an Illinois Family Law Study Committee hearing in January of this year.

The directors of CRC of Illinois also listened closely to the testimony of child development and parenting experts such as Alan Ravitz of New York University and William Pinsof of Northwestern University, who reinforced the need for new guidelines in Illinois.

Along with reforms to court protocols, respected clinicians at The Family Institute at Northwestern University have developed alternative processes that could be mandated to redirect vengeful and uncooperative parents away from corrosive litigation which is ill-suited to family dissolutions, and toward constructive, balanced-parenting solutions.

Processes such as Integrative Family Therapy could provide a system of intermediate-term counseling blended with mediation to help parents "put the kids first."

The testimony of experts has provided Illinois' judges, attorneys and legislators with the academic research and examples they need for serious reform.

Our state's judicial and legislative leaders need only the willpower to create new child-friendly parenting time standards, to demand a mandatory parenting agreement statute and to adopt modern family court reforms that have met with success in other states.

The benefits of updating Illinois family court protocols are many. They include decreased transfers of children between separated parents, greater father involvement in their children's schooling, fewer animosity-generating court battles, greater communication and incentives for parents to cooperate with each other, more father engagement, fewer "Disneyland dads," improved post-divorce adjustment, fewer outcomes that scar children, less elevating of one parent into a monopolizing role and clearer signals to all parents that children in Illinois need a meaningful relationship with both parents.

Illinois is poised to place fatherhood onto a more solid footing. Adopting into law the recommendations made to the Illinois Family Law Study Committee would send a positive signal that promotes fatherhood as a value. But like all changes to the status quo, there will be resistance.

Concerned citizens will need to advocate that legislators should provide Illinois children of separated parents the opportunity for the responsible fathers they deserve, and set a positive example for all families.

Michael Doherty is chairman, the Children's Rights Council of Illinois. Herb Reichelt is a member of the Board of Directors of CRC of Illinois. This commentary was written on behalf of the Board of Directors. The CRC Web site is www.equalparentingillinois.org.