Juvenile court: visitation.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary and digest do not provide specific details on the financial impact or effectiveness of these changes.

Juvenile Court Visitation Rules

AB-926 requires courts to order visitation at the first hearing when a child is taken from their home by child welfare services, setting rules for frequency and duration of visits and conditions under which supervision is necessary.

What This Bill Does

• Requires the court to order visitation at the initial petition hearing between the child and parent or legal guardian, specifying the frequency and duration conducive to quality family time.
• Orders contact between the parent and child within 72 hours of removal by child welfare services.
• Removes old rules that said visits could not jeopardize a child's safety but still requires supervised visits if unsupervised ones would harm the child or cause severe emotional damage.
• Requires social workers to explain why it is unsafe for a child to visit their parent without supervision and what steps were taken to make visits safer.

Who It Names or Affects

• Children who are in the care of child welfare services because their parents cannot take proper care of them.
• Parents or guardians whose children have been removed by child welfare services.
• Social workers and courts dealing with these cases.

Terms To Know

visitation

The time a parent or guardian is allowed to spend with their child when the child is in the care of someone else, like child welfare services.

child welfare services

Services provided by government agencies to help children who are not safe at home and need protection from abuse or neglect.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how much it will cost local governments to follow these new rules.
• It is unclear if the changes will improve conditions for children in care or their families.

Official Summary Text

AB 926, as introduced, Gipson.
Juvenile court: visitation.
Existing law establishes a system of statewide child welfare services, administered by the State Department of Social Services and county child welfare agencies, with the intent that all children are entitled to be safe and free from abuse and neglect. Existing law establishes the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge a child to be a dependent of the court under certain circumstances, including when the child suffered, or there is a substantial risk that the child will suffer, serious physical harm, or a parent fails to provide the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment. Existing law establishes the grounds for removal of a dependent child from the custody of their parents or guardian, and establishes procedures to determine placement of a dependent child. Existing law authorizes the court to make orders regarding visitation between a child and
parent or legal guardian, subject to specified conditions. Existing law prohibits a visitation from jeopardizing the safety of a child.
This bill would require, at the initial petition hearing, the court to make an order regarding visitation between the child and the parent or legal guardian, setting forth the frequency and duration most conducive to quality family time, and whether the visitation must be supervised. The bill would require the court to order contact between the parent and child commencing within 72 hours.
The bill would remove the above-described prohibition prohibiting a visitation from jeopardizing the safety of a child. This bill would require a court to order unsupervised visitation between a parent or legal guardian and a child or children, unless unsupervised visitation is contrary to the child’s welfare and there is a substantial danger to the physical health of the child or the child is suffering
severe emotional damage and the child’s physical or emotional health cannot reasonably be protected without supervised visitation, or there is substantial evidence that the parent or legal guardian may flee the jurisdiction with the child. The bill would require, if the court orders supervised visitation, the court to specify the factual basis for its order and order the agency to assess persons proposed by a parent or guardian to supervise the visitation. The bill would also require social workers or their designee to supervise visits in specified circumstances when an alternate individual has not been approved to supervise visits. The bill would require the court to order that the agency has discretion to liberalize the visitation to unsupervised unless the court finds granting this discretion would be contrary to the child’s safety.
Existing law requires social workers to create reports and recommendations to be reviewed by the court as part of a permanency
review hearing.
This bill would require social workers to specify why the return of the child would be detrimental to the child and, if visitation has not been liberalized, what efforts were put in place to liberalize the parent or legal guardian’s visits and why liberalization was contrary to the child’s welfare.
By increasing the duties of county social workers, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Current Bill Text

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