Professional Providers to supervise child visits

Professional Providers 

Professional providers must have special training and pass a background check. They are also mandated reporters. This means that they must report suspected child abuse to the local child welfare department (CPS). Professional providers can be used for short visits (example: 1-2 hours). Fees are paid directly to the provider, or sometimes can be free or low-cost.  

Follow the judge’s orders  

Providers must follow the judge’s orders. Judges can change court orders so the provider must follow the most recent order made by the judge. If there is more than one type of order granted (one from family court and one from criminal court) and you do not know which order to follow, contact a lawyer, if there is one in the case. If there is no lawyer, the parents may need to go back to court to have the judge clarify which order should be followed.

Complete a court form for every case 

Professional providers must complete and file form FL-324(P) in every case they provide services. There is no fee to file this form. 

Comply with training and other requirements  

Training requirements: Before providing services, providers must complete at least 24 hours of training, including 12 hours of classroom instruction on specific topics (examples: reporting child abuse, child development, and the role of professional providers).

Background check: Providers must pass a Live Scan criminal background check. They must be registered with TrustLine, a database of childcare providers that have passed criminal background checks.

For more information on training and background check requirements, read standard 5.20 of the Standard of Judicial Administration.

Free or low-cost training is available: 

• Free online training course (90 minutes) 

• Find trainings on our Access to Visitation program site