DCFS Placement - Text-Only Version

6.10 Visitation

Visitation is one of the most important activities in which the caseworker, parents, child and foster parents are involved. Parent-child visitation has been identified in child welfare research as one of the critical factors affecting permanency outcomes for children. Visitation is a powerful therapeutic intervention that serves as a window into parent-child functioning and interaction. As such, it becomes one of the primary tools that caseworkers can use in making safety, well-being and permanency decisions for children. Department Rule and Procedure 301 includes practice guides that cover all aspects of visitation. All readers of this guide should review this rule, procedure and appendix for detailed instructions on conducting and managing visitation.

6.10.1 Time Frames for Visitation

Department Rule and Procedure require that:

Initial visitation plan must be completed before placement or no later than three days after a planned placement.
The initial visit between parent and child must occur within five working days of placement.
The comprehensive family service plan, including the visitation plan, must be completed within 45 days after the case is opened.
The comprehensive family service plan, including the visitation plan, must be reviewed quarterly by the worker and supervisor and administratively reviewed every six months.
When the goal is return home, parents and child visits must be scheduled at least weekly; preferably more frequently.
Sibling visits must occur at least twice per month; exceptions require supervisory approval.
At a minimum, caseworkers must observe parent/child visitation at least once per month. Note that sound clinical practice requires the frequency of observed visitation be established based on the unique circumstances and needs of the child and family. It is essential that the worker understand the nature of the visits, the bond that exists between parent and child and the quality of the interaction. Observation of visits presents an opportunity for workers to develop these understandings.

6.10.2 Visitation and the Child

Visitation serves the child on a number of levels. First it is a vehicle to reduce the psychological harm done to the child by separation from his/her family. Visitation reassures the child that his or her parents still exist, helps give meaning to the separation and provides hope that reunification can occur. This reassurance can help nourish the child while s/he waits for permanency.

Visitation is also an opportunity for a child to experience reassurance from his or her parent that s/he is loved and valued. It is a chance for the child to receive permission from the parents to be happy where s/he is until it is possible for him/her to return home.

Visitation is also an opportunity for children to experience changes that the parent may have made. As parents relate to them differently (i.e., in a more positive and healthy manner), children will learn to relate to their parents more positively. Feelings of trust and well-being will be enhanced.

It is important to prepare the child for visitation. The child should understand when and where visits will take place, how long the visits will be, who to expect at the visit (parents, siblings or other relatives), what will happen during the visits. In addition, the child should be reminded that after the visit, he or she will return to the foster home.

6.10.3 Visitation and the Parent

The birth parent has a right to visitation and a visitation plan will need to be developed. Visitation is also important from the parents' perspective. Visitation is a chance for parents to be reassured that their child is being cared for and to maintain (and enhance) their relationship with the child. Placement of the child represents a major failure on the part of the parent and upsets the balance within a family. If frequent contact does not occur between the parents and child, all members of the family may become comfortable with the separation. Visitation is a constant reminder to the parents that they must quickly resolve the issues that led to placement of their child.

Visitation represents an opportunity for the parent to demonstrate empathy and express concern for their child. It is an opportunity for the parents to correct behaviors, improve caregiving skills and demonstrate their understanding of other changes that need to be made in the parent role. It reasserts the parent's commitment to the child and helps maintain the parent-child bond.

Parents need to be prepared for visitation with their children. The worker and parent should jointly develop ground rules so that visits will be productive and healthy. Some examples of ground rules are appropriate and inappropriate topics of conversation with the child (discussing the status of the case is not an appropriate topic of conversation); the expectation that the parent's focus is on interacting with the child (therefore, discussions with the caseworker about case-related matters should not occur); the expectation that the visit begins on time and ends on time; calling to confirm the visit or to cancel the visit. Other preparation topics include when, where and how long the visit will take place; planning for appropriate activities or snacks during the visit.

The non-custodial parent has a right and a responsibility to visit his/her child. Contact between the child and the non-custodial parent provides support to the child and allows the parent to develop and/or maintain an attachment and relationship to the child. Visitation may also help develop a future placement opportunity for the child. If the child does know or have a relationship with the non-custodial parent, the worker should follow the procedures referenced in Chapter 2, Working with the Non-Custodial Parent.

6.10.4 Visitation and the Caregiver

Visitation provides the caregiver the opportunity to support the relationship of the child with his or her family. Through visitation, the caregiver may learn more about the child's needs, the child's ambivalent feelings about his or her family, the child's reaction to the loss and separation from the birth family and the need for connection to the family. Visitation may serve as a catalyst for involving the caregiver in working with the family around permanency issues.

6.10.5 Visitation and the Paramour

If a paramour is involved with the parent, the worker must follow the Procedural Guidelines for Intake, Investigation and Delivery of Services to Paramour Involved Families (Policy Transmittal 2000.18). If the paramour is not a birth parent, the worker will need to assess whether it is appropriate for the paramour to be involved in the visits. Such information as whether the paramour currently resides in the household or will reside in the household when the child returns home, safety and risk concerns, the relationship between the paramour and the child, any fear that the child shows toward the paramour, whether the child desires visitation with the paramour and the results of any background checks are relevant in making this assessment. Whether or not the paramour should be involved in visits is at the worker's discretion and must be made in consultation with the supervisor and documented in a supervisory note.

6.10.6 Maintaining Sibling Relationships

Every effort should be made to place siblings together; however, sometimes this is not possible. When siblings are placed apart, sibling visitation must occur frequently but not less than twice per month. Contact by telephone and letters should be encouraged. Facilitation of sibling visitation is the responsibility of the primary (family) caseworker (or, if there is no family case, the caseworker for the oldest child) in situations where there are multiple caseworkers. Foster parents or other caregivers should also be involved in facilitation and monitoring visits. Sibling visits may occur immediately before or after parent-child visitation or entirely separately based on the schedules of the children, caregivers and caseworker. The visits should be in a home-like setting to enable the siblings to interact with each other in a relaxed way. Where a caregiver hosts an overnight sibling visit, Rule 359 provides for a monthly special service fee to defray costs.

Sibling visits should be documented on a visiting log and made a part of the record. Sibling visits provide an opportunity for the caseworker or caregiver to observe the interaction of the siblings and intervene when necessary to teach social skills or redirect inappropriate behavior. If the parent is involved in the visit, carefully observe how the parent interacts with all the children present. Again, the caseworker or caregiver may use the visit as a "teaching moment" to teach, coach or redirect the parent's interaction with the children.

When siblings are placed apart, form CFS 318 must be used to share placement information among the siblings. The form should be completed and a copy given to the child's caregiver. Each sibling, or his/her caregiver, should know where the other sibling is and how to reach him/her. Although foster parents' addresses and telephone numbers are not to be shared with parents without a written consent from the foster parent, siblings are allowed to have this information pursuant to Rule and Procedure. The child's caregiver should be given a copy of CFS 318 to keep with the child's documents.

6.10.7 Visitation and the Caseworker

Visitation helps the caseworker assess, plan for and deliver services to the child and family. It provides opportunities for the worker to understand the strengths and needs in the parent's ability to care for the child. It is an opportunity to understand the nature of the bond and relationship between the parent and child. Assessment of parent-child visitation becomes a key component for determining services that can improve, strengthen and enhance family relationships and which will lead to a resolution of safety and risk concerns.

Visitation is an important factor in determining if the parent is able to integrate new behaviors in their contacts with the child. It is the chance for the caseworker to observe the interaction between the parent and child and determine whether progress has been made in correcting the problems that caused the placement. This evaluation, in combination with other clinical indicators, will provide the basis for recommendations to the court.

Visitation also provides a forum for the caseworker to teach, model, and observe the parents as they try to meet the needs of the child. (See Section 6.10.9, "Assisted or Therapeutic Visitation")

6.10.8 Visitation Throughout the Life of the Case

Like all case planning, visitation occurs throughout the life of a case and is developed with input from the family, caregiver and the child. Visitation plans should be evaluated and revised based on the changing needs of the family and child as the child moves to permanency. The frequency, intensity and purpose of visits may change based on the court's and the caseworker's evaluation of the parent's progress.

Visitation often moves along a continuum from supervised to unsupervised contact based on the emotional and safety needs of the child and on the capabilities of the parent to meet those needs. As children and families move closer to reunification, visitation should become more frequent and of longer duration. Overnight and weekend visitation usually precede return home. Even when unsupervised visitation occurs, the worker must observe visits once per month in order to gauge safety and assess the parent-child interaction. Caseworker supervision and/or participation in visitation provide protection, assessment and support, and may provide compliance with court orders.

Parent-child and sibling visits need to be documented on the comprehensive family service plan and the visiting log.

6.10.9 Forms of Visitation

Visitation should be more than a parent sitting in a room, talking with his/her child. Each visitation should be planned and have a definite purpose. The ultimate goal of reunification work is to change the parent's problematic behavior that brought the child into care. Supervised, assisted or therapeutic visitation and shared parenting are three forms of visitation that can facilitate changes in parenting behavior.

Supervised Visitation
Supervised visitation involves monitoring visits to ensure the safety of the child or to control the actions and conversations of the parents. Visits should be supervised if the court has ordered supervised visits or if caseworker has insufficient information about the parent's ability to assure safety or the parents exhibit behaviors which may place the child in danger.

Supervised visits permit the caseworker to personally observe the parent-child interaction. A supervised visitation may become an assisted or therapeutic visitation (see below) if the parent needs coaching to more appropriately interact with his/her child. Supervised visitation should not become an occasion for parents to discuss case-related issues with the caseworker (or vice versa). During supervised visits, parents should be allowed to assume the parenting role without interference from the worker unless coaching is needed, the parent's interaction upsets the child or a safety concern arises. Parents should play, read, talk, prepare meals or snacks, change diapers, etc. with and for their children. In addition, visits may be supervised in order to periodically assess parent-child or sibling interaction or provide protection for the child.

Visits may be supervised for reasons of safety, assessment, enhancement of the parent-child relationship and court orders.

Safety considerations include:

There is insufficient information about the parent's ability to assure the child's safety;
The parent exhibits behaviors and/or has a diagnosed condition that might place the child's safety in jeopardy;
The parent is unable or unwilling to abide by restrictions on discussions of subjects identified as upsetting to the child;
The parent continues to deny or fails to accept responsibility for the actions which placed the child's safety in jeopardy or caused serious physical or emotional harm;
The reasons the case came into care (i.e. sexual abuse, domestic violence, mental illness) are of a nature that preclude unsupervised visitation because of the emotional impact that contact may trigger in the child;
The worker has reason to believe that the parents or other persons are likely to flee from the visit with the child;
A paramour is involved in visitation and any of the above conditions are present.
can be used as an assessment process in that workers can assess a parent's motivation and willingness to cooperate with the visiting plan. The worker will be able to observe parent-child interactions to evaluate how the parent relates to the child, whether there is an improvement in this area over time, whether the parent is able to plan appropriate activities for the child(ren) and whether the parent is able to care for and protect the child(ren) during visits.
important purpose of supervision is to support the building of a mutually satisfying relationship between parent and child. Supervising vists can also play a role in family treatment, especially when it involves teahing skills to parent (see section below on assisted or therapeutic visits).
supervision may be necessary due to a court order that the visits be supervised. In such instances, the court may have ordered supervision for some of the same reasons as described above as well as other reasons.
Assisted or Therapeutic Visitation
Assisted or therapeutic visitation is an interactive way to work with the family toward the goal of reunification. The purpose of this visitation is to support, teach and interpret appropriate parenting or to correct parenting deficiencies. Through assisted visitation the parent receives the full support of others trained to understand parent-child interaction. The caseworker must participate in assisted or therapeutic visitation at least once per month in order to observe the parent-child interaction.

Techniques for Assisted or Therapeutic Visitation

Modeling discipline and behavior management techniques (by the caseworker, caregiver, other professional, trained paraprofessional or relative)
Observation of parent-child interaction followed by discussion and suggestions by the trainer/mentor
Demonstration of the appropriate interaction by the trainer/mentor
Teaching the parent, with the child present, how to meet the child's special needs
Working directly with the parent and child on attachment techniques; e.g., consistently understanding and meeting the child's needs, helping the child express his/her feelings and demonstrating that they understand, helping the child relax and have fun, using non-abusive discipline, helping the child feel good about him/herself, making sure the child does not feel rejected even when his/her behavior is unacceptable.
Shared parenting or co-parenting
or co-parenting is an extension of assisted visitation in which both the caregiver and the birth parent attend to the needs of the child. Shared parenting often begins with the caregiver "sharing" information, skills, time and actual parenting duties with the birth parents so that the parent can gain a better understanding of the child's needs and routines and in effect "practice parenting" their child. This hands-on intervention with the child also begins the transition of the child back to the parents. As the parent and child move closer to the actual reunification date, more responsibility for meeting the physical and emotional needs of the child shifts to the parent. The caregiver assumes a supportive role with both the parent and child and is available for consultation and direct assistance.

Shared or "co-parenting" is a powerful tool for involving the parent in the "normal" parenting activities and can serve as a predictor of how well parents will be able to handle such responsibilities when the family is reunited. Examples of shared parenting include:

Health-related activities such as:

Meeting with the child's primary health provider
Taking the child for regular and specialized medical appointments
Taking the child for special treatments such as speech, physical and occupational therapy

School-related activities such as:

Visiting the child's school
Attending school conferences and IEPs
Chaperoning field trips
Helping the child with homework
Attending after school and extracurricular activities

Community related activities such as:

Participating in church and religious activities with the child
Using community resources such as parks, libraries, museums

In addition to providing more and more natural contact between the parent and child, shared or co-parenting offers the parents the opportunity to learn more appropriate behaviors and cultivate a greater role in the child's life. Co-parenting requires the full cooperation of the caregivers and the recognition that they are part of the team that is working with the child and the parent. By participating in co-parenting the caregiver becomes an important, identifiable support to the family.

When consistent visitation does not occur it is imperative that the caseworker be proactive to determine the reason. Usually inconsistent visitation is a major indicator of something. Caseworkers should not let problems with visitation slide. Problems with visitation can rest with the parent, the child welfare system or some combination of both. Workers in consultation with their supervisors should seek solutions to these barriers.

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