Unless a judge deems visits harmful to a child, birth families have the right to have visits while their children are in care. Most of the time these visits are supervised by either a case aide or a parent aide but can also be supervised by approved family members or foster parents. The point of the visits is to keep kids and their parents connected and, when a parent aide is assigned, this time also includes parenting objectives to assist in the ultimate goal of reunification. Visits can vary in length and frequency depending on availability of parents, supervision, and child schedule conflicts but typically equate to 4 hours per week.

Many foster parents are discouraged by their licensing agencies from supervising visits because of liability issue. Foster parents are encouraged to co-parent through sharing information on how the child is doing, pictures, recent activities and achievements, and anything else they believe would be useful for their parents to know to keep connected.

Thank you for your great question! If you have questions, send them to #youaskedfa or Kim@fosteraz.com