Visitation

It depends on the situation. Generally, the CW will schedule visits to best fit the parents schedule. We were lucky and the CW would pick the kids up from daycare, take them to their visit, and bring them back. I would pick the kids up at the end of the day like normal. For school age kiddos, the CW might pick the child up from school for the visit, then I would meet the CW somewhere to pick up the kids. Now if you have to help transport, they will have to at least consider your schedule.

We were lucky because our visits are supervised and everyone's scheduled had to be accounted for. Also the children's nap time is accounted for. Because of this, our visits have been pleasant for everyone when they do occur. In our area, its not unusual for FP to supervise visits w/ BioParents. So ultimately the FP schedule must be taken in consideration. In our area, most FP are working parents so its now unusual to have evening or weekend visits.

I was told to ask about visits when called about a placement, because that makes it more likely that they will consider my schedule. I've only had one placement, but I asked about visits and was told that the department would transport and do it during the day (this may, however, be in part because my daycare is about a five minute drive from their building).

So it seems like I may need to try and keep a pretty open schedule and that's fine. How many times a week do your placements have visits each week?

I would be extremely cautious of providing a very open schedule because you will be taken advantage of. Provide a couple of dates and times and then go from there. You don't want to have weekend visits every week for a year. In our area, visits are normally Court ordered twice a week for an hour or longer. I've heard of daily visits as well as once a day for 4+hrs. It really all depends on your area.

My sib group who left had 3 visits a week. My current placement has 0, since he's free for adoption.

We work out visits with the CWer. The judge gives the amount of time for visits, and it is up to the CWer to make sure it is followed, but the actual times and dates of the visits are up to us to work out. I usually give two days and specify morning or afternoon, because that works best for me, and the CWers pick from that and try to make it the same time and day each week. I would not give the CWer too many options, because some workers will take that as you can change your visit time to meet their schedule, so they can move your time if they need to do something else. Most are respectful of your time, but you generally do not yet know that when visit times are discussed.