Nationwide, the “Grants to States for Access and Visitation” Program (AV) served over 67,000 parents in FY 2005. 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% state match.

Number of Parents Served

In FY 1998, the first year program services were provided, 21 states opted to participate in the program and 20,000 parents were served. In FY 2005, all states but two (Guam and Maryland) submitted data, and the number of participating parents has tripled compared to the program’s first year of service provision.

• There was a slight decrease in the number of parents served in FY 2005 compared to FY 2004 (from 71,000 to 68,842). One possible explanation is that the cost of providing AV services has increased and, as a consequence, slightly fewer parents were served.

Nearly Equal Number of Fathers and Mothers Served

Similar to the data reported in FY 2004, nearly equal numbers of mothers (33,795) and fathers (32,174) participated in state-administered access and visitation programs in FY 2005. In addition, 2,873 grandparents and/or legal guardians were recipients of AV services.

Efforts Continue to Focus on Unmet Access Needs of Unmarried Parents

Approximately 41% of parents served in FY 2005 were unmarried parents. In addition, divorced parents constitute 24% of parents served; 17% of parents were separated; and 13% reported they were married to one another.

Demographics of Parents Served

The majority of parents served in FY 2005 earned a yearly income of less than $20,000. Based on the race/ ethnicity data reported by States, 52% of parents served were white; 21% were African-American; 16% were Hispanic; 2% were American Indian/Native Alaskan; 1% were Asian-American/Pacific Islander; 2% were defined as Other, and 6% were Unknown (no data was reported).

Nationwide, States Deliver a Range of Access/Visitation Services

States determine service(s) 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 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 2005.
 

Mediation	40 States	13,102 parents
Counseling	25 States	6,438 parents
Parent Education	37 States	18,140 parents
Parenting Plans	37 States	12,161 parents
Visitation Enforcement
Supervised Visitation	41 States	17,046 parents
Neutral Drop-off/Pick-up	39 States	8,390 parents

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 a non-custodial parent utilizes over a period of time usually determined by the court. States do not report on the development of their service guidelines.

Access Services Result in Increased Parenting Time with Children

In FY 2005, approximately 32,174 fathers received access and visitation services. In addition, 21,874 non-custodial parents (NCPs) were able to obtain increased parenting time with their children.

CSE Agencies Growing Source of Parent Referrals to Access Services

While courts continue to be the primary source of parent referrals (35,552) to AV Services, child support agencies made significant strides by increasing their number of parent referrals from 3,622 in FY 2004 to 15,377 in FY 2005. This represents a rise in the number of IV-D-referred cases from 8% in FY 2004 to 24% in FY 2005.

Local Service Providers

In FY 2005, States contracted with over 300 court and/or community-based, non-profit service providers for the delivery of access and visitation services.

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