Why Supervised Visitation works

Most countries recognize a parent's right to children, called visitation, residence, or contact. Most courts, including American and European, will allow the parent who does not have primary custody (the noncustodial parent) to have specified visitation and access to the child. In America the parents must establish a parenting plan setting out specific details. If the parents are not able to agree, the court may order specific possession and access or may appoint a parenting coordinator to assist the parents. The United States recognizes that parents have a constitutional right to their children (See Troxel v. Granville). In this case the United States Supreme Court stated that "the interest of parents in the care, custody and control of their children--is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court."

In most of the US states there is a law required that court-ordered parenting plans must set forth the minimum amount of parenting time and type of access (i.e. supervised/unsupervised) a non-custodial parent is entitled to have. According to the state laws and court guidelines, the Custody Supervisor cannot change the court order to make major modifications to the amount of parenting time and access, only the minor changes or clarification of parenting time/access schedules or conditions including vacation, holidays, and temporary variation from the existing parenting plan are allowed.

Visitation Rights

In a Divorce or custody action, permission granted by the court to a noncustodial parent to visit his or her child or children. Custody may also refer to visitation rights extended to grandparents.
In a divorce where one parent is awarded sole custody of the child, the noncustodial parent is usually awarded visitation rights in the divorce decree. Visitation rights can be withheld if evidence is provided that proves it is in the best interest of the child not to see the parent. This usually occurs only where it has been shown that the parent is an excessive user of alcohol, a user of illegal narcotics, or is physically or verbally abusive. With the large number of divorced parents in the United States, grandparents have lobbied successfully for laws that give them rights to visit their grandchildren. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has voiced concerns about such laws and ruled one such statute unconstitutional in 2000.

Visitation rights may be determined by the agreement of the parties or by a court order. If the court concludes that the parents will be cooperative, it may not issue a detailed visitation schedule. This means that parents must amicably work out reasonable times and terms that work best for both parents and child. If parents are not cooperative, the courts encourage the drafting of a detailed schedule that leaves no doubt about the frequency of visitation, the days and times of pickup and return, and holiday and vacation schedules.