In most divorce situations, one parent retains physical custody of the children for the majority of the time. The other parent will receive visitation with the children.
If you are the parent who gets visitation time with your children, there are two possible arrangements, according to FindLaw.
Unsupervised
You will most likely receive unsupervised visitation, which means that the other parent hands the children over to you for a set time and you take them to your home to visit. You will decide the schedule for visitations in your divorce agreement. You may get them weekly during the week, on weekends or possibly more often, depending on what you agree to. This is the most common type of visitation arrangement.
Supervised
Supervised visitation is a special arrangement in which your visits with the children include a third party who will watch over and monitor your time together. The court will usually award this type of visitation if there is a reason to fear for the children’s safety. Most often this means that there has been some type of domestic violence or another issue, such as drug abuse, that causes concern.
The third-party person could be a relative or a professional, such as a caseworker. It will not be the other parent.
Supervised visitation can take many forms. Sometimes, it only involves supervised exchanges where you and the other parent have a third party present when the children change custody. It could also allow you to visit without a third party, but limit visitation time to only daytime hours. It is also possible for the court to place further restrictions on you, such as requiring you to complete family violence programs or requiring abstinence from drugs and alcohol.
