(a) Investigation and report. In any proceeding in which legal custody, residency, visitation rights or parenting time are contested, the court may order an investigation and report concerning the appropriate legal custody, residency, visitation rights and parenting time to be granted to the parties. The investigation and report may be made by court services officers or any consenting person or agency employed by the court for that purpose. The court may use the Kansas department for children and families to make the investigation and report if no other source is available for that purpose. The costs for making the investigation and report may be assessed as court costs in the case as provided in article 20 of chapter 60 of the Kansas Statutes Annotated, and amendments thereto.

(b) Consultation. In preparing the report concerning a child, the investigator may consult any person who may have information about the child and the potential legal custodial arrangements. Upon order of the court, the investigator may refer the child to other professionals for diagnosis. The investigator may consult with and obtain information from medical, psychiatric or other expert persons who have served the child in the past. If the requirements of subsection (c) are fulfilled, the investigator’s report may be received in evidence at the hearing.

(c) Use of report and investigator’s testimony. The court shall make the investigator’s report available prior to the hearing to counsel or to any party not represented by counsel. Upon motion of either party, the report may be made available to a party represented by counsel, unless the court finds that such distribution would be harmful to either party, the child or other witnesses. Any party to the proceeding may call the investigator and any person whom the investigator has consulted for cross-examination. In consideration of the mental health or best interests of the child, the court may approve a stipulation that the interview records not be divulged to the parties.