Supervised Visitation and the Role of Human Service Departments

What Are The Basic Types And Goals Of Supervised Visitation?

Supervised child visitation can be indicated in cases involving custody; shared parenting; grandparent custody or visitation; divorce; legal separation; post-decree matters; emergency custody situations; abuse/neglect/dependency cases; concerns about parental abduction; and, reintroduction of a parent after a long absence.

Child visitation can be restricted or denied if a court finds that allowing regular visitation would endanger a child’s physical or emotional health.  In numerous situations, courts may order child visitation by stipulating how often visits are to occur, with whom, and whether the visits are to be supervised by a human services employee or some other responsible adult.  If there are protection and safety concerns the visits are supervised.

Such supervised visits also provide an opportunity for workers to observe and document parent-child interactions.

Types and Goals of Supervised Visitation

In many states there are three basic types of supervised visitation providers:  volunteers, paid professionals, or paid therapeutic providers.… View Full Article → “Supervised Visitation and the Role of Human Service Departments”

Child Protective Services and Coercion

Analyzing The Use Of Coercion In The Child Protective Services Investigative Setting

The key role of the child protective services (CPS) investigator is to determine if a child is at risk of harm. When a child is in immediate danger, CPS and/or law enforcement work to ensure the child’s safety. Often a safety plan is developed which will keep a child safe at home. When that is not possible the child may be taken into protective supervision.

If the unequivocal assessment indicates a high risk of danger everyone agrees that the child may be removed on an emergency basis. When that determination is not so certain, and the evidence is not incontrovertible, the investigator may nonetheless believe it would prudent for the child, temporarily, to go elsewhere or for certain changes in the household to take place. Toward that end, the investigator may try to influence, encourage, or persuade the caregiver to take certain actions for the child’s betterment.… View Full Article → “Child Protective Services and Coercion”

Child Abuse and the Penalties for False Reporting

False Allegations Of Child Abuse Can End Up In Civil, Criminal, Or Juvenile Courts

The Jerry Sandusky criminal trial is over; the civil lawsuits are in active settlement mode. Undoubtedly, the entire country is more tuned into child abuse than it ever was. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that about 105 bills on the reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect have been introduced in 2012 legislative sessions in 30 states and the District of Columbia. All of them include a penalty for failing to report suspected child abuse.

Oregon is one of the states which recently enacted child abuse reporting legislation. It added to the list of mandated reporters any employee or volunteer of an organization providing child-related services or activities, any employee of a higher education institution, and any coach, assistant coach or trainer of child athletes and any individual who provides guidance, instruction or training in youth development activities and youth camps.… View Full Article → “Child Abuse and the Penalties for False Reporting”

Child Abuse: Non-Abused Siblings Who Remain at Home

Child Abuse: Non-Abused Siblings Who Remain at Home

A recent study identifies the nation’s most dangerous traffic intersection. It’s at Flamingo Road and Pines Boulevard in Pembroke Pines, Florida. The insurance company’s engineer who compiled the report notes that the intersection meets appropriate design standards and is regulated by traffic lights. He said traffic volume and driver error were two important factors in the high number of crashes.

Child Abuse and the Dangerous Child Protective Services Intersection

One of the most dangerous intersections of every state’s child welfare system is the decision whether to remove or leave non-abused siblings in a home in which another sibling has been a victim of child abuse or neglect.  Like the dangerous intersection in Pembroke Pines, CPS workers often face high caseloads (“traffic volume”) and constant life-threatening decisions (the possibility of “driver error”).

A Pennsylvania case involved “an appeal from the determination of dependency where the adoptive father committed sexual child abuse upon one of the children.… View Full Article → “Child Abuse: Non-Abused Siblings Who Remain at Home”

Foster Children : Summer Safety

Foster Children: Summer Safety

Keeping foster children safe in the water

Water. It can be so much fun, but oh so dangerous. The National Safe Kids Campaign (2004) reports that “drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 1–14 and the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 1–4. The majority of drownings and near-drownings occur in residential swimming pools and in open water sites.” Furthermore, in 2004, “approximately 2,300 children ages 14 and under died from unintentional injuries that occurred in the home. Nearly 80 percent of these deaths were among children ages 4 and under.”

Foster Children News Headlines on Summer Safety

Reported cases of swimming pool accidents involving foster children that actually go to trial are not common.  Many more cases are filed and settled out of court. A sampling of unfortunate headlines dealing with Foster Children tells the story:

Suit Settled In Foster Child’s Near-drowning

Mother may sue over baby who drowned in foster care

Toddler ‘drowned in pool while her foster parents partied’

Foster child drowns in pool, parents question DHS

Foster Children: New State Regulations for Pool Safety

As a result of these lawsuits involving foster children, child welfare officials have reviewed and revamped safety and training procedures. … View Full Article → “Foster Children : Summer Safety”

Parenting Time Calculator

A Helpful Parenting Time Calculator Tool for Family Law Attorneys

Any family law attorney, judge, or child custody expert will tell us that, except in unusual circumstances, during and following a divorce it is desirable for a child to have a strong relationship with both parents. It follows that the less contentious the divorce the better off are the children, the parents, and the department in charge of child support issues. Indeed, custody and support issues can unravel what might otherwise be an amicable divorce. One of the major problems that may arise after divorce is custodial interference with visitation. Many jurisdictions, including Ohio, have held that unreasonable interference with the noncustodial parent’s parental rights can even be grounds for a change of custody.

According to Susan D. Stewart, in her study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family in October, 2010, one third of all children in the United States have a nonresident parent.… View Full Article → “Parenting Time Calculator”

Caregiver Liability: When Kids Run from Foster Care

The National Runaway Switchboard reports that between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away each year. It also reports that there has been “a significant increase in the number of crisis calls identifying abuse or neglect as a reason for the call, with abuse calls up 33 percent and neglect calls up 54 percent between 2005-2008″ (National Runaway Switchboard Crisis Caller Trends, 2009, p. 2).

Youth in out-of-home care often choose conduct that does not ensure their own safety. They elope from foster homes, group homes, or other residential settings at an unknown rate. When children are known risks for eloping a court may find that it is the legal duty of the caregiver to take all prudent means to take appropriate preventative measures.

Instinctively, we are aware of the links between youths running away in general and youths eloping from out-of-home care. Social science research has made significant progress in describing runaway youth in general (Martinez, 2006; Sanchez, Waller, & Greene, 2006), but has made minimal inroads in accurately describing the phenomenon of youth eloping from out-of-home care.  … View Full Article → “Caregiver Liability: When Kids Run from Foster Care”

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