Plain English Breakdown
Checked against official source text during the last sync.
Court-Ordered Make-Up Visitation for Children
This act allows courts to order extra visitation time between a child and a person when the original court order was not followed during an investigation of abuse allegations, if those allegations are later found to be false.
What This Bill Does
- Creates a new law that lets judges give more visitation time to people who missed out on seeing their children while being investigated for possible harm to the child.
- Requires courts to order make-up visits only when an investigation finds no proof of abuse or neglect, and the parent with custody does not have a good reason for missing the original visits.
- Specifies that extra visitation must be similar in type and length to what was missed and should happen within two years after the court's decision.
Who It Names or Affects
- People who are being investigated by child welfare services for possible abuse or neglect of a child.
- Parents with custody of children during investigations, if they miss out on visitation time.
- Judges and courts that make decisions about visitation rights.
Terms To Know
- Department
- The Department of Family and Community Services in Alaska, which investigates allegations of child abuse or neglect.
- Substantiated
- When an allegation is proven to be true after investigation by the department.
Limits and Unknowns
- The law does not specify what happens if a parent with custody has a good reason for missing visitation time.
- It's unclear how this will affect cases where investigations are still ongoing or have not yet concluded.