Establishing Supervised Visits Guidelines
(A. 3314 / S. 1584)

One cannot be violent and abusive and be a good parent. When a parent engages in a pattern of harm against the child or the other non-offending parent, children are harmed for life.

Bill A.3314/S.1584 is a critical step in preventing poor outcomes for children and holding abusive parents accountable. Children have the right to live safely in their homes and communities. They deserve to be kept free from harm, even when their parents become abusive. That’s what New York’s judicial system is intended to do. Yet, New York’s Divorce/Family Court System fails our children each and every day.

Abusive parents are routinely given unsupervised visitation immediately after a relatively short period of supervised visits.

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When parents allege domestic violence or child abuse during child custody or child visitation proceedings in New York’s Family Court, these allegations are routinely minimized or categorically dismissed.

We must pass this bill to protect our children and our communities. This bill:

  • Requires courts to hold an evidentiary hearing within 30 days of a filing to assess any allegations of domestic violence, family violence or child abuse before determining the “best interests of a child”;

  • Requires the court to award sole physical custody to the non-offending parent in cases where the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that domestic violence or child abuse has occurred;

  • Requires the court to issue a supervised physical custody plan before supervised visitation is initiated. Such plan must include, among other requirements, the conditions and safeguards necessary to minimize risk of harm to the child during visitation and specific measures the offending parent must take for supervised visitation to continue;

  • Requires supervised visitations be conducted by a court-approved professional with expertise in domestic violence and/or child abuse, in a therapeutic setting and under conditions that ensure the health and safety of the child;

  • Requires immediate suspension of supervised visitation if an offending parent commits additional harm to the child while physical custody arrangements are ongoing; and

  • Requires the court to explain in writing its justification for making such a determination and how unsupervised visitation is now in the child’s best interest, when the court determines unsupervised visitation can occur.