Supervised Visitations

 

An intake with each parent separately will be completed and take approximately one hour at a cost of $150 for the entire intake process prior to visits starting. During the intake, parents will be able to describe the concerns related to the safety of the children. Child First Family Services may add additional rules based on the intakes to ensure safety. Guidelines and rules will be reviewed with both parties before supervised visitation is scheduled and will be signed by both parties.

 

The parent that will be receiving the on-site supervised visitation is required to clock in 30 minutes before the appointment. The parent bringing the child/children is required to clock in 15 minutes early but no more than 20 minutes before the scheduled appointment. Each parent will be in separate rooms and should have no contact between them. Once the child is transitioned from the custodial parent/guardian to the parent receiving the supervised visitation by the Child First Family Services staff, the child will be supervised at all times with staff until returned to the custodial parent/Guardian. When the visit has ended, the supervised parent will stay at the office for a minimum of an additional 5 minutes to allow the custodial parent and child(ren) to exit and leave the area.

 

The custodial parent/guardian/Child welfare caseworker and supervised parent  will receive a written summary of the visitation striving to send out the summaries approximately within two weeks of the visit. 

Home Visits

A home inspection is $75 in addition to travel costs. The home inspection is required prior to approval for home visitations and during drop off and pick-up, the supervisor will escort the children to and from the custodial parent's car. 

Office Visits

In Lancaster, there are three supervising rooms for babies, younger children and older children including games, arts and crafts, a dining room table, refrigerator, microwave, coffee/tea/hot chocolate bar/bottles of water  in all visitation rooms. All rooms have a living room. There are other activities including a kitchenette, workshop, veterinary clinic, gaming table with over 35 board games on the computer tablet gaming board, pool table, ping pong, air hockey table, Thomas the Train set, darts, and Xbox in the other visitation room. During all visits, the supervised parent may leave the office and take the children anywhere within walking distance which include a few restaurants and walking through a neighborhood. There is also an airplane playground and water activity on the premises. In the Harrisburg visitation office, there is one visiting room at this time with a similar set-up. There are also several restaurants and a playground in walking distance. In both locations, the custodial parent/foster parent is required to leave the premises of at least one mile away during the visit and to return a few minutes before the visit ends. 

Supervised Visits

The supervisor of the visit only intervenes for possible safety reasons. The supervisor documents what is said and observed. However, there are no clinical assessments. Cost: $60.00 per hour.

 

Therapeutic Supervised Visits

The supervisor of the visit initially observes the interaction between the child(ren) and the adult and then sets parenting goals to achieve. The supervisor may assist the parent with providing strategies for parenting during the visits as well as after the visit with goals to achieve per visit with the goal of improved positive parenting. Cost: $85.00 per hour.

 

 

 

*All staff have Child Abuse Clearances, have been trained for supervised visitation based on the Supervised Visitation Network training, and have had a minimum of 12 hours of domestic violence training.*