Supervised Access With a Child in CAS Care: Your Rights in Ontario

Seeing your child only under supervision can feel like a punishment, and it is hard to know whether you can push back. In Ontario, access to a child in the care of a children's aid society (CAS) is governed by the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 (CYFSA), and the court has the final say.

This article explains how access is set, when supervision is required, how to ask for a change, and what can reduce or end access. It is general information, and your own order is the document that controls what happens.

How access is decided

The court can make, vary or end an access order in the child's best interests. When a child is in society care or under supervision, an application can be made by the child, any other person (including a sibling), a band or community representative for a First Nations, Inuk or Métis child, or the society.

Because the court can make, vary or end access, changes to it are a matter for the court and its best-interests test. How this applies to the wording of your own order depends on your situation, so it is worth confirming with a lawyer.

When supervision is required

Supervised access is required if, when the society applied, the parent had been charged with or convicted of a Criminal Code offence involving violence against the child or the child's other parent. The court must then specify the supervision in the order.

Outside that situation, whether visits are supervised depends on what the court or an agreement says in your case, and on what the court finds is in the child's best interests. A lawyer can read your order and explain what it requires.

Also keep in mind that no access order about a person 16 or older can be made without that person's consent.

Asking for more access

If you want more time, longer visits or fewer restrictions, the usual route is an application to the court to vary access. Anyone other than the society who asks to change access must generally wait six months after the relevant order, decision or appeal result before applying.

A status review is another opening. A parent can apply for one, on notice to the society, but must wait six months after the latest order or disposition. The wait does not apply if the court is satisfied that a major element of the plan of care it relied on is not being carried out. On a review, the court can vary or end the original order or make a new one.

• Attend every scheduled visit and arrive on time, and keep a record of visits.
• Keep copies of any messages about cancelled or changed visits.
• Keep notes on how the visits go, including anything positive for the child.
• Raise problems with the worker early, and in writing where you can.

What can reduce or stop access

Because the test is the child's best interests, a court can vary or end access if that is what the child's interests require. Where a child is in extended society care, the rules are stricter. Existing access orders end when extended society care is ordered. The court can then make or vary access only if it is in the child's best interests, and it must consider whether the relationship is beneficial and meaningful to the child and whether access will impair the child's future adoption opportunities. The court must end an access order once it is no longer in the child's best interests.

If a child in extended society care has been placed for adoption and still lives with that family, no access application can be made.

A court can also make a restraining order in the child's best interests that bars a person from contact with the child. Breaching one is an offence punishable by a fine of up to $5,000, up to one year in jail, or both.

What to do next

• Get a copy of your current order and read the access terms carefully.
• Do not sign a Statement of Agreed Facts (Form 33C) without legal advice.
• Note the date of the last order so you know when the six-month waiting period ends.
• Think about whether other family members, including siblings, could also seek access.
• If you are unhappy with how the society is handling your case, you can make a written complaint, ask the Child and Family Services Review Board to review a decision, or complain to the Ontario Ombudsman.

Timing and wording matter in access cases. A lawyer can tell you which route fits your order and what evidence helps.

Frequently asked questions