Skolan, familjer tten och barnen

School, family law and children exposed to violence. The intersectionbetween family law proceedings and the school system is a neglected area of research. Based upon a qualitative interview study involving 22 informants, this article explores how staff at school and preschool understands their professional task, when in encounters with children in difficulties in the context of family law proceedings. Which are the implications of these understandings of professionalism, for children exposed to violence? Further, the article explores the relations between established perspectives in the school domain and discourses dominating the immediate domain of family law. The results suggest that two competing perspectives shape understandings of risks, solutions and violence in dissimilar ways. When arguing from the child’s rights’ perspective, the staff prioritizes children’s safety and participation, while an upbringing perspective tends to understand violence mainly as a problem of order, with disquieting implications for vulnerable children.