Supporting Parent-Child Visits

While children are in out-of-home care placements, it is important to maintain connections with their birth families. Parent-child visits are a key strategy to accomplish this and to work toward reunification of the family. Resources include State and local examples.

Best Practice for Father-Child Visits in the Child Welfare System (PDF - 1,147 KB)
National Family Preservation Network (2012)
Outlines guidelines for caseworkers partnering with fathers with children involved in the child welfare system in order to make visitation meaningful and productive.

How Can Frequent, Quality Family Time Promote Relationships and Permanency? 
Casey Family Programs (2020) 
Explores how parent-child connections are important for children's well-being and how quality family time correlates with successful reunification. The resource reviews the benefits of quality time, lists negative consequences for children and parents who do not maintain regular connections, reviews how to structure effective family visits, and more. 

Introduction to Parent-Child Visits: An Essential Tool for Family Reunification
Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative
Prepares frontline child welfare workers with knowledge about parent-child visits, including their importance to the well-being of children in out-of-home care. This learning resource requires a free account. 

Rise’s TIPS Approach to Supporting Parents in Supervised Visits
Rise (2017)
Provides handouts, videos, and posters developed by parents and frontline staff  to better navigate cases and strengthen communication and trust with parents.

Using Media Effectively With Young Children and Virtual Visitation [Webinar]
Florida's Center for Child Welfare (2020)
Presents a two-part webinar series hosted by Dr. Rachal Barr on information, tips, and strategies for using remote and virtual communication to strengthen and maintain relationships between children and their families.

• Part One: Virtual Communication With Young Children
• Part Two: Using Media Play With Young Children

What is Family Visitation Within the Foster Care System
Craft (2017)
The Spruce
Explains various aspects of family visitation in the child welfare system, including supervised family visitation, moderated family visitation, and unsupervised family visits.

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State and local examples

2013 Report to the Pennsylvania State Roundtable: "Visitation Is a Right, not a Privilege" (PDF - 811 KB)
Office of Children and Families in the Courts (2013)
Provides a report that presents best practices around visits and oversight developed by the Pennsylvania Visitation Workgroup.

Child and Family Visitation Best Practice Guide (PDF - 793 KB)
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (2015)
Outlines the primary purpose of visitation in maintaining parent-child attachment. This resource provides information about timeframes, policy, monitoring, and locations for each successive parent-child visit.

Family Time Visitation in the Child Welfare System (PDF - 456 KB)
Partners for Our Children (2014)
Examines the importance of meaningful family visitation in working towards reunification between parents and children in the child welfare system in the state of Washington.

R.O.C.K. Mat-Su Implementation Project
University of Denver, Butler Institute for Families
Provides information and resources about the Family Contact Improvement Partnership, a group of organizations, agencies, and community stakeholders committed to improving family contact for children who are in out-of-home care. The website includes a family contact best practices guide (PDF - 7895 KB) for professionals and a video explaining the importance of meaningful, healthy, and culturally-centered family contact for children in out-of-home care.

Strive: Essential Steps for Parenting Success
Partners for Our Children
Explains the ways in which the Strive module seeks to facilitate strong relationships between parents and their children in foster care through education and support.

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