Specifications include, but are not limited to: 1. Mediation – These services could include, but are not limited to, court connected or community-based services involving professionals (certified and trained as family mediators) who meet with both parents to: resolve parenting disputes; develop parenting plans and visitation agreements; and increase visiting parenting time with children when safe and appropriate. Under the Access and Visitation Program, mediation may be voluntary or mandatory. 2. Development of Parenting Plans – These services could include, but are not limited to, the development of formal or informal parenting plans or parenting agreements through services other than mediation which increase visiting parenting time with children when safe and appropriate. These plans may or may not be filed with the court depending upon the wishes of the parents. 3. Counseling – These services could include, but are not limited to, professional advice or guidance provided to parents by a licensed or certified mental health professional. This provision of service is intended to help parents work through their interpersonal conflicts by focusing on the best interests of the child. When safe and appropriate, counseling services should support and facilitate visiting parents’ increased parenting time with their children. 4. Parent Education – These services could include, but are not limited to, educational workshops, classes or seminars that provide visiting and custodial parents with information on a range of issues, such as: the effects of separation and divorce on children and families; impact of parental conflict on children; improving parenting skills; how to put a parenting agreement into effect; court procedures for filing a motion for visitation; and custody and visitation compliance issues. Educational services must be delivered by qualified trainers and support and facilitate visiting parents’ increased parenting time with their children when safe and appropriate. 5. Neutral Site Unobserved Child Transfer – These services offer a safe location where parents can drop off their children and the other parent can pick them up. These exchanges are self-managed and do not involve interaction between the parents. The parameters of neutral site unobserved child transfer must be set forth. 6. Supervised Visitation – These services shall provide the most regulated form of visiting parent/child interaction and involves direct visit observation that may progress to diminishing stages of direct/indirect observation with authorization from the court. This activity does not involve contact between parents. 7. Visitation Enforcement – These services could include, but are not limited to, Monitored Visitation or Monitored Child Exchange. Court ordered visitation enforcement must ensure the safety and welfare of children, parents, and providers, and services must be appropriate to the age of the child and consider the family’s history. Services must be delivered by qualified, experienced personnel at a specified location. These services should be structured as an interim solution to the family’s conflict with the need for visitation enforcement ultimately being resolved whenever possible. The parameters of monitored child exchange must be set forth.
