Kane County Plans Family Center for Supervised Visits and Safe Custody Exchanges
Leaders in the Kane County family law community are working with the Kane County Board to establish a new resource to help families navigate difficult custody situations and ensure the safety and well-being of children who are caught in the middle of a divorce or parental separation.
The planned Neutral Exchange Supervised Time (NEST) Family Center would provide a dedicated location for supervised parenting time and neutral child exchanges for families involved in court proceedings. Organizers say the center would fill a critical gap in services currently available in Kane County.
Judge Kim DiGiovanni, presiding judge of the Kane County family division, said the volume and complexity of family law cases shows the need for a dedicated facility. The division currently operates six courtrooms handling orders of protection, divorce cases, and other family law matters.
“In 2025 alone, we saw 640 divorce cases involving children, more than 1,600 orders of protection impacting children, and 540 parentage cases," DiGiovanni said during a Kane County Board committee meeting. “This is a center that we are in dire need of."
She noted that neighboring DuPage County has offered similar services for more than 20 years, with McHenry County also providing the resource in recent years.
At present, parents in family court cases often rely on police departments or other public locations to exchange children, particularly when court orders require a neutral setting. In other situations, parents who must have supervised parenting time frequently struggle to find a qualified supervisor or afford private services.
Custody exchanges can be a major source of conflict between parents, often marked by strained communication, logistical disagreements and emotional stress. Those issues can cause children to suffer from anxiety, regression and behavioral changes.
The proposed NEST Family Center is intended to provide a safe and structured environment where those interactions can occur. The facility would offer supervised visitation, neutral parenting exchanges, and family mediation services designed to support families in transition.
The NEST Family Center is planned for a building behind the Kane County Courthouse on Third Street in Geneva.
The initiative is being led by a committee of attorneys and others from the Kane County family law community and the Kane County Bar Foundation, with support from the 16th Judicial Circuit and the Kane County Board.
Plans for the project include informing the community about the need for the center and launching a capital campaign to raise funds for startup costs, including leasing a location and covering the first year of operations. Once opened, the center will continue fundraising and pursuing grants to sustain its programs.
For more information about the NEST, click here.
