FY 2007 Program Highlights

Nationwide, the "Grants to States for Access and Visitation" Program (AV) served over 79,000 parents, grandparents, and legal guardians in FY 2007. The States (including the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) accomplished this with a fixed, annual appropriation of $10 million plus the required 10 percent State match, where applicable.

Access Services Result in Increased Parenting Time with Children

In FY 2007, approximately 37,364 fathers and 39,657 mothers received access and visitation services. In addition, 32,940 noncustodial parents (NCPs) increased parenting time with their children, which is a 29 percent increase over FY 2006 in which 25,667 NCPs increased parenting time with their children.

Number of Parents Served

In FY 1998, the first year AV program services were provided, 21 States opted to participate in the program, and 20,000 parents were served. In FY 2007, all States submitted data, and the number of participating parents has tripled compared to the AV program’s first year of service provision. FY 2007 reflects the highest number of parents, grandparents, and legal guardians served since the AV program’s inception.

Nearly Equal Number of Fathers and Mothers Served

Similar to the data reported in FY 2006, nearly equal numbers of mothers (39,657) and fathers (37,364) participated in State-administered Access and Visitation programs in FY 2007. In addition, 2,537 grandparents and/or legal guardians (3 percent of total served) were recipients of AV services.

Efforts Continue to Focus on Unmet Access Needs of Unmarried Parents

Approximately 44 percent of parents served in FY 2007 were unmarried parents. In addition, divorced parents constituted 21 percent of parents served; 16 percent of parents were separated; 15 percent reported they were married; and 4 percent were unknown (no data was reported).

Demographics of Parents Served

The majority of parents served in FY 2007 earned a yearly income of less than $20,000. Based on the race/ethnicity data reported by States, 49 percent of parents served were white; 22 percent were African-American; 16 percent were Hispanic; 2 percent were Asian-American or Pacific Islander; 1 percent were American Indian or Alaskan; 2 percent were Other; and 8 percent were unknown (no data was reported).

Nationwide, States Deliver a Range of Access/Visitation Services

States determine services to be provided, which include those defined in the authorizing legislation (i.e., mediation, counseling, parent education, development of parenting plans, and visitation enforcement, including supervised visitation and/or neutral drop-off and pick-up). All services must be related to the overall goal of the AV program which is to "...enable States to establish and administer programs to support and facilitate non-custodial parents’ access to and visitation of their children..."

The majority of States provide more than one service, and in many instances, parents are the recipients of more than one service. Listed below are the number of parents that received each service type and the number of States that provided these services in FY 2007.

It is important to note that parents are counted once per service and that the amount of time or service hours devoted to each parent is not collected. As a result, parent education yields high numbers of parents served because it usually entails a one-time-only participation in a 2-4 hour seminar. Supervised visitation, on the other hand, is considered a time-intensive service that an NCP utilizes over a period of time usually determined by the court. States do not report on the development of their service guidelines.

Parent Referral Sources to Access Services

Courts continue to be the primary source of parent referrals (52 percent) to AV services. Child support agencies completed 23 percent of parent referrals in FY 2007, a slight increase from 22 percent in FY 2006.

Local Service Providers

In FY 2007, States contracted with 353 court and/or community-based, non-profit service providers for the delivery of access and visitation services.