Research has shown that visits are one of the most critical things a child welfare professional can do to support the outcomes of safety, permanency and well-being. This includes visits between parents and children when the child is in foster care, children’s visits with siblings, worker visits with children and worker visits with birth parents and other caregivers.

COVID19 visitation

COVID19 has impacted how children and parents can maintain contact.  In these extraordinary times it is important to find ways to help children and parents in contact when face-to-face is not possible. From old fashion letters to the many apps and internet websites there are options that can support the families. Here is a list of suggestions on types of activities and how to make video chats more successful. Most of this paper is written in as a handout professionals can give to parents and caregivers. The last page contains some advice for the child abuse professionals.  Long Distant Activities.

Virtual Visits

Parent/child visits (Family Time) can be done using apps and internet based tools that allow visual and audio interaction. This type of visit is referred to as Virtual Visits. Virtual visits cannot replace in-person visits. They are normally used to supplement in-person visits. In the time of COVID19 Virtual visits are a critical Reasonable Effort service to temporarily replace in-person visits. Virtual Visits: Recommendations and Resources provides information for the professional on how to support virtual visits. In this document there are specific recommendations for each age group; frequency of visits, length and types of activities. Also a list of resources includes on how to locate smart phones, computers, data plans, internet access and some child friendly webpages.

Webinar:

Maintaining A Child’s Connections During the time of COVID19. Presented April 24, 2020 for California. Other webinars on COVID19 and conducting parenting/child visits and caseworker visits are available.

Face to Face Visits

Children, parents and siblings have the right to have face to face visits even in the time of COVID19. Virtual visits is a supplement to these visits and only in extraordinary circumstances should there only be virtual visits. It is likely that the use of only virtual visits will increase the time is in care and reduce the opportunity for successful family reunification.

Parent Child Visits and Maintaining Connections

View Rose presenting on the laws, research and best practice of Parent/Child Visits…

• Introduction to Parent/Child Visit – A free online training – http://training.childwelfare.gov/oltMain.cfm?z=z (registration or login required)
• The Five Steps to Developing a Visit Plan
  • Visit Planning Decision Sample Case
  • Developing a Visit Plan Planned, Purposeful and Progressive Visit Planning tool
• Impact of Separation Chart – Tool to determine how children at each developmental age group respond to separation, trauma and  grief. Strategies on how adults can help the child adjust and develop resiliency.
• Visit Curricula
  • Visit Planning: Planned, Purposeful, Progressive Visits – One Day Version
  • Sample PowerPoint of One-Day course
  • Visit Planning: Planned, Purposeful, Progressive Visits – Two Day Version
  • Visiting Incarcerated Parents
  • Incarcerated Parent Visit Course
  • Supervising Visits Course
  • Teaching and Assessing Parent Skills Visits Course

Sibling Connections and Visits

• Outline of Sibling Connections
• Enhancing Sibling Connections
• Sample PowerPoint (Enhancing Sibling Connections)
• State Strategies of Joint Placement of Siblings
• Suggestion List for Professionals to Improve Sibling Connections
• See the video of this presentation (Click this link, then scroll down to Enhancing Sibling Connections. The video is at the end of the webpage.)

Worker Visits with Children

• Outline of Child Visits Curriculum
• Sample PowerPoint (Overview of Child Visits)
• Questions to assess safety, permanency and well-being when talking to Children and their Caregivers (based on the child’s developmental age)
  • Infants
  • Toddlers
  • Preschoolers
  • Schoolage
  • Early Adolescence
  • Middle Adolescence
  • Late Adolescence

Worker Visits with Parents or Caregivers

• Overview of Worker Visits with Parents
• Sample PowerPoint (Worker Visits with Parents)
• Questions to assess safety, permanency and well-being when talking to birth parents (based on the developmental age of the child)
  • Infants
  • Toddlers
  • Preschoolers
  • Schoolage
  • Early Adolescence
  • Middle Adolescence
  • Late Adolescence

Finding Families

• Fostering Connections Act – Best practices and responsibilities of professionals to help a youth find their family

Family Connections

• Maintaining Family Relationships for Children in the Child Welfare System ABA Child Law Practice, Vol. 31 No. 7 July 2012,  Rose Marie Wentz and Kelly Lynn Beck

Supervisor Overview of Worker Visits

• A curriculum for supervisors to ensure best practices when workers visit children, caregivers and parents  learn more

Reasonable Efforts

• Visits and Connection activity are key to meeting the federal requirement to provide Reasonable Efforts to prevent placement and to help a family reunify if placement occurs. Unlocking Reasonable Efforts” Kinship is Key is an article by Rose and Kelly Beck that describes this process. The article was published in the Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy. July-August 2012.