Washington state law places a high value on parent–child relationships, and even when there has been domestic violence many courts will be reluctant to cut off all contact between a parent and a child. The limits a court will place on contact is usually determined by how much risk there would be to the child.
Supervised visitation is a remedy courts will sometimes turn to when an abusive parent poses some risk to a child, but not so much that contact should be cut off entirely. With supervised visitation, contact between the parent and child is only allowed in the presence of another person: the supervisor. There are two types of supervised visitation options available in King County: professional supervisors not affiliated with a visitation center (independent supervisors) and supervisors who provide their supervision services inside a visitation center (center based supervision). Both center-based and individual supervisors charge a fee for their services but the courts will generally require the respondent to pay the costs associated with supervised visitation.
To learn more about supervised visitation and whether it is right for your family, please view the following publication from The Family Violence Prevention Fund called, Supervised Visitation Programs: Information for Mothers Who Have Experienced Abuse. The publication includes information about supervised visitation, how to prepare children for visitation, how to handle concerns with visitation and key questions a parent should ask to determine if the visitation program is right for your family. The following questions have been excerpted from a larger list of questions in this publication:
- How does the program provide a safe visitation environment for parents and for children?
- How does the program try to make the visitation a positive experience for children?
- What role, if any, will the program play in the custody/visitation court case?
- How does the program collect, record, and handle information about families?
- What rights and options do I have if I feel the supervisor or the supervised visitation center is not appropriately supervising my children or if they behave in an unprofessional or unsafe manner?