What is parent-child contact (visitation)?

“Parent-child contact” refers to visitation of the child – it is the right to spend time with your child that doesn’t live with you.  If one parent has sole physical responsibility for a child, the other parent will usually have some form of parent-child contact.

If you and the other parent cannot agree about PR&R and/or parent-child contact, you will have a court hearing where a judge will decide who gets physical custody and how much parent-child contact the non-custodial parent will get.

Judges usually want children to contact with both of their parents, unless it would harm the children.  If the child’s other parent has harmed your child in some way, the judge may limit parent-child contact or say there won’t be any contact at all.  Judges usually order at least some parent-child contact.  If you want a judge to order no parent-child contact for the other parent, you usually have to show the judge that the other parent is a serious and immediate threat to your child.  A lawyer may be able to help you with this.  To find a lawyer please visit the VT Finding a Lawyer page.