Family Resources

Child/Parent Contact Guidelines

UNDERSTANDING COURT ORDERED VISITATION BETWEEN CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS

Dependency Judges usually order liberal visitation with parents. Babies need to bond with parents, and older children need to continue to see their parents on a regular basis. It is generally in the best interest of children to have frequent contact with their parents, unless visitation is not safe. To help you understand visitation guidelines, you should:

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Ask the Child Protective Investigator and/or the case manager:

  1. Who is allowed to visit?
  2. Where the visitation should take place?
  3. How often visitation is taking place?
  4. Who is transporting?
  5. Is there anything special I should know?
  6. Ask for a copy of the court order.

THERE ARE 2 TYPES OF VISITATION

Visits can be by phone, Skype or in person, and even phone visits need to be supervised at all times when visits have been court ordered to be supervised.

SUPERVISED

This means that relatives or non-relatives (who have been approved), and/or someone from the case management agency, has to be present at all times when the children visit with their parents. The person supervising the visit has to listen to the conversation and closely watch the interaction between the child and the parent .

UNSUPERVISED

This means that parents can visit their children without relatives, non-relatives, or someone from the case management agency supervising. Even unsupervised visits may have special guidelines, such as
visits that must occur in a public place.

IMPORTANT: When parents come to visits under the influence, bring unauthorized people, are angry, act unusual, or make unrealistic promises to the children, it is up to you to redirect or intervene. You can end a visit or phone call if the parents’ behaviors could harm the children physically or emotionally. If that happens, you should notify the case manager immediately.