A JUDGE CANNOT DELEGATE PARENTAL ACCESS DETERMINATIONS TO A MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL (SECOND DEPT). ​

The Second Department noted that a judge should not delegate to a mental health professional the determination of whether a parent will be awarded parental access:

“[A] court may not properly delegate to mental health professionals the ultimate determination of whether a parent will be awarded [parental access] rights” … . It is “improper for [a] court to condition future [parental access] on the recommendation of a mental health professional” … . Here, the Family Court erred by delegating to the therapeutic agency (1) the authority to determine when therapeutic parental access would cease and the father’s prior stipulated unsupervised parental access schedule would be reinstated and (2) the discretion to expand and/or modify the father’s access to the children … . Accordingly, the order must be modified by deleting the provisions thereof modifying the parental access provisions of the judgment of divorce so as to condition the father’s parental access on the therapeutic agency’s determinations. Matter of McCook v Delbrune, 2025 NY Slip Op 06322, Second Dept 11-19-25