Can Father/school Deny Legal Paperwork?

Location: Virginia

Location: North Carolina

My friend is a 38!year old mother of 5 in Virginia. She has physical custody of all her children, obviously outside those that are of adult age. There are no active or previous CPS investigations, no criminal charges, no reasons to subvert her court ordered custody.

Her youngest daughter (11) requested to live with her father in North Carolina in 2024. While the mother was not a fan, she acquiesced. The child has been registered for school and has been attending the entire 2025/26 school year. There has been no legal change to the court order.

The mother then gets wind of the daughter being mentally and emotionally abused, and the child states her desire to come back to Virginia in October, and the mother retrieves her current court order and drives to NC to pick the child up at school. The school states that, "The order looks too old (despite it having been printed at the clerks office *that day* ) and calls the father. The mother goes home alone.

She has been told by someone (?) that her order means nothing in this regard. My contention is that the order is legally binding until it's changed by a judge, therefore, she should be able to pick the child up and bring her back to Virginia with no consequence (outside of a potential frowning in family court due to the spontaneity of the situation).

It's also my estimation that if the school declines access to the child, despite proper paperwork being presented, then the school is in an actionable position not only civilly, but also for criminally for contempt (to be decided by a judge, of course.)

Any and all *legitimate advice* welcome and appreciated.