What does visitation mean?

“Visitation” is the legal right to visit and spend time with a child. A judge can write an order describing when and how often the parent, grandparent, or other family member can visit the child. When a judge decides a person’s parental rights are limited to seeing and spending time with a child rather than living with and making major decisions for the child, this means that person does NOT have “custody” of the child. Visits can be for the day or overnight, supervised, or unsupervised.

THIS CHART EXPLAINS THE 3 TYPES OF VISITATION PLANS A COURT COULD ORDER:

TYPES OF VISITATION PLANS

REASONABLE VISITATION—a flexible plan that allows the petitioning parent to work out the details of visits with the other parent (or caregiver)—such as when, where, how often, and for how long the visits will take place.

SCHEDULED VISITATION—a detailed plan with exact dates and times for the parent to visit the child.

SUPERVISED VISITATION—a plan that allows the petitioning parent to visit their child regularly but requires someone else to be present and supervising the visits, to make sure that the child is safe and that the parent and child get along well.[2348]

NO VISITATION—the judge may decide not to give the parent any visitation at all. This happens if the judge is concerned that a parent will harm a child and thinks it’s best for the child not to have contact with the parent.

  1. 2348

    The judge may grant supervised visitation if s/he thinks that your child should see you regularly, but (1) has concerns about the child’s safety, or (2) you haven’t seen your child in a long time and need time to be (re)introduced. The judge’s supervised visitation order will state when you can visit your child, and may also state where and who the supervisor will be. A non-professional supervisor can be a family member or friend who cares about the child and wants to help. A professional supervisor is someone trained and experienced in providing supervision services, and will likely charge a fee for the services. All supervisors are legally required to report suspected child abuse. Cal. Fam. Code § 3200 et seq.; Cal. Rules of Court § 5.20. ↑