Visitation notes
A visitation note is the supervised parenting time (SPT) equivalent of a progress note. It documents a parent-child visit you supervised: the transportation around it, what happened during the visit, your observations of the interaction, and your recommendations. DCS expects these reports to reach the family case manager within 72 hours of the visit.
The staff member who supervised the visit writes the note; their supervisor or a Practice Manager approves it.
Before you start
Have ready: the case, the date and times of the visit, any transportation you provided before or after, who attended, and your observations of the visit.
Step 1 — Start the note
From the sidebar choose New Clinical Note and pick the supervised parenting time case. Because supervised parenting time can be recorded as either a visit note or a progress note, FCR asks which you're writing — choose Visit note when a supervised visit happened (use a progress note for a no-show or contact attempt). FCR creates a draft and opens the editor; everything autosaves as you work.
Step 2 — Record transportation and the visit
A visitation note can capture up to three parts of the day:
- Transportation before the visit (if you provided it)
- The visit itself
- Transportation after the visit (if you provided it)
Record the times for each part you handled.
Transportation should end right as the visit begins (and the return trip should start right as the visit ends). Because you can't be transporting and supervising at the same moment, FCR won't let you save times where transportation overlaps the visit — fix the overlapping time to continue. If there's a stretch of time between transportation and the visit, FCR shows a gentle reminder to confirm the gap is intended, but still lets you save.
Who rode — passengers on each leg
For each transportation leg you check, select who you transported. The passenger picker offers the same family members as the attendance list, and each leg gets its own selection — a child transported one way and not the other is normal, so record each leg as it actually happened.
Every checked leg needs at least one passenger — DCS requires it, and FCR won't let you submit a checked leg without one. If you didn't provide a leg, leave its box unchecked; no passengers are needed.
Passengers print on the note and flow to the monthly visit report's Transportation section, filling its Those Present column automatically.
Set the supervision level and the visit stage:
- Full — you supervised the entire visit.
- Intermittent — you checked in periodically (a drop-in visit).
- Unsupervised — the visit didn't require your presence throughout.
If the visit stage is intermittent, record each time you dropped in. FCR uses those times to confirm the expected check-in cadence — so keep them accurate.
Step 3 — Write your observations and recommendations
Describe the parent-child interaction, any interventions you made during the visit, and your recommendations. This is the heart of the report the case manager reads.
Step 4 — Rate the quality of the visit
The Quality of Visit section is where you assess how each parent did with each child. DCS requires an independent rating for every parent-child pair at the visit — so instead of one set of ratings for the whole visit, FCR walks you through the pairs one at a time. Two parents and three children at the visit means six pairs.
Who gets paired comes straight from your attendance checklist: every parent or caregiver on the case who is checked present, matched with every child on the case who is checked present. The lines above the section show exactly who that is — Scoring: names the adults being rated, Present: names the children. Uncheck someone in the attendance list and their pairs drop out.
For each pair you rate six things about that parent-child interaction on a four-point scale:
- Strong — they did this always
- Adequate — often
- Limited — occasionally
- Destructive — rarely or never
The six items cover: demonstrating the parental role, knowing the child's development, responding to the child's cues, putting the child's needs first, showing empathy, and keeping interactions and preparation child-focused.
One pair at a time
On a phone, FCR shows one item at a time with four large buttons. Tap a rating and it moves to the next item on its own — six taps finishes a pair. You then see that pair's review card: all six choices at a glance, with any row tappable to change it. Next pair moves you on; the progress strip at the top shows how far along you are, and any segment is tappable to jump. When every pair is rated, a compact summary shows the whole set — tap any row to revisit it.
On a larger screen the whole pair is on one card: click the ratings, or keep your hands on the keyboard — press 1 through 4 to rate the highlighted item (it advances on its own), and use the arrow keys to step back or skip forward.
Ratings save per pair, six or none — a pair you finish is saved, a pair you never touch is simply unrated. A half-rated pair blocks submitting: finish its last items or clear it before you submit.
Turn the ratings into your narrative
Once your pairs are rated, click Generate narrative. FCR writes one paragraph per pair, grouped by parent — the section for each adult opens with their name, then a paragraph for each child ("With Sophie, he …") — so you're editing real prose that already says who each assessment is about, instead of starting from a blank page.
The text is yours to edit. Reword it, add specifics, soften or sharpen — for example, "…showed empathy toward Maya throughout, though needed prompting to redirect Liam." What you end with is the record: it's what prints on the note, the note PDF, and the monthly report. The ratings themselves stay behind the scenes — they're only there to help you write.
The ratings are optional. If you'd rather write the Quality-of-Visit narrative in your own words from the start, do that — the narrative is what's required to submit, not the ratings. Use Generate narrative only if it helps.
If you've already written or changed the narrative and click Generate narrative again, FCR asks first before replacing it — so regenerating after you tweak a rating never wipes your wording by surprise.
Step 5 — Submit for approval
Choose Submit when the note is complete. FCR checks for scheduling conflicts (it won't let you log a visit that overlaps another of your sessions) and the required fields, then sends it to your supervisor's queue.
Approving a visitation note creates the official service records for the day (transportation and the visit) and locks the note. If a correction is needed afterward, a supervisor or PM can request revision to reopen it.
If your note is returned for revision
It comes back as an editable draft with the reviewer's notes. Make the changes and submit again.
Frequently asked questions
What if I only did the visit, not transportation? Just record the visit. Transportation legs are optional — fill in only the parts you actually provided.
A grandparent or family friend attended — do I rate them? No. Only parents and caregivers covered on the case are scored. Anyone else who attended still gets checked in the attendance list and can be described in your narrative — they just don't appear as a rated pair.
I reopened an older note and the ratings are blank — where did they go? Notes written before per-pair ratings keep their narrative exactly as filed — the text is, and was, the record. The old-style ratings aren't converted into pairs, so the pair ratings start fresh on an older note. Rate the pairs if it helps you revise the narrative, or leave the text as written.
The visit was cancelled — what do I do? Record it on the note; cancelled and no-show visits are documented and counted as non-billable, the same as on a progress note.
When is this due? DCS expects the report within 72 hours of the visit, so write and submit it promptly.
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