Parental Access – Short-Term Society Care, The Child Welfare Toolkit, Brief #3

This report addresses orders for parental access when children are under short-term Children’s Aid Society (CAS) care, either through an order for Interim Society Care or through a Temporary Care and Custody order. Though the burden of proof on CAS when seeking these two forms of short-term care differ, they are similar in nature from the perspective of the children involved. Both forms of care are meant to be temporary, with a goal of eventual family reunification.   The first section of this report examines the legal approach to parental access during short-term care including legislation, case law, and specific examples of access orders that have been granted. The second section of this report details the existing body of social science research on parental access during short-term society care. The report concludes with a brief synthesis of the two areas of research and highlights gaps, points of alignment, and potential future directions for judicial decision-making based upon social science research.