DCL-08-38, The annual State Access and Visitation Profiles for FY 2007 presents state AV program data.

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-08-38

ATTACHMENT: Child Access and Visitation Grants: State/Jurisdiction Profiles for FY 2007 (2.8 Mbytes, Adobe PDF)

DATE: October 14, 2008

TO: All State IV-D Directors All State Child Access and Visitation Program Coordinators

RE: Release of New Access and Visitation Program Data for Services Provided to Parents in FY 2007 (October, 2006 – September, 2007)

Dear Colleague:

I am pleased to provide you with a copy of the attached document, "Child Access and Visitation Grants: State/Jurisdiction Profiles for FY 2007."

The goal of this $10 million per year mandatory grant program is to enable States to establish and administer programs to support and facilitate noncustodial parents' access to and visitation of their children. Allowable services include: mediation, development of parenting plans, counseling, parent education, visitation enforcement (supervised visitation and neutral drop-off), and development of guidelines for visitation and alternative custody arrangements.

This report is divided into three sections:

Section I: Overview;
Section II: National Data Trends; and
Section III: State/Jurisdiction Profiles.

This document highlights access and visitation services provided by States to over 79,000 parents during October 1, 2006 – September 30, 2007. In addition, this report includes information on the socio-economic characteristics of parents served and, of particular importance, notation of State, local, court, community, and faith-based service providers.

A summary of the year-in-review is as follows:

Number of Parents Showing Increased Parenting Time: In FY 2007, 32,940 parents had increased parenting time with their children compared to 25,667 in FY 2006 – a 29% increase.
Number of Parents/Guardians Served: Over 79,000 parents/guardians were served in FY 2007.
State Efforts Focused on Unmet Child Access Needs of Unmarried Parents: The largest group of parents served were unmarried parents (44%) with divorced parents the second largest group (21%). Approximately 16% of parents were separated; 15% reported they were married to each other; and 4% were unknown (no data reported).
Majority of Clients Are Low-Income: Continuing the trend of the last several years, the majority of parents served earned less than $29,000.

For a comprehensive review and discussion of these findings and other data please refer to the attached document. This report is on the Office of Child Support Enforcement’s Website at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/ under Policy/Dear Colleague Letters.

Given that the Child Support Enforcement and Access and Visitation programs often serve the same children and families, I thank all of you for recognizing the need for program collaboration. This report is evidence that our partnership is working to provide access services to those who need them.

Sincerely,

Margot Bean
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

Attachment

cc: OCSE Regional Program Managers