Are grandparents entitled to visitation?
This has been a hot issue since President Clinton signed into law the Visitation Rights Enforcement Act in November 1998. And it’s still not over even though the United States Supreme Court recently handed down its decision in Troxel v. Granville, No. 99-138 (Jun 5., 2000) a controversial case from the state of Washington. Parents and grandparents alike should understand what rights exist today — and how they may change as a result of the Supreme Court’s recent decision. The Visitation Rights Enforcement Act amended title 28 of the U.S. Code dealing with enforcement of child custody and visitation orders. The law says that grandparents who have already been granted visitation rights in one state can exercise their rights in another state. The courts of any state in which the children live must respect, or reciprocate, the visitation rights granted in the original state. It’s important to understand that this law doesn’t create an absolute right to grandparent visitation.
This has been a hot issue since President Clinton signed into law the Visitation Rights Enforcement Act in November 1998. And it’s still not over even though the United States Supreme Court recently handed down its decision in Troxel v. Granville, No. 99-138 (Jun 5., 2000) a controversial case from the state of Washington. Parents and grandparents alike should understand what rights exist today — and how they may change as a result of the Supreme Court’s recent decision. The Visitation Rights Enforcement Act amended title 28 of the U.S. Code dealing with enforcement of child custody and visitation orders. The law says that grandparents who have already been granted visitation rights in one state can exercise their rights in another state. The courts of any state in which the children live must respect, or reciprocate, the visitation rights granted in the original state. It’s important to understand that this law doesn’t create an absolute right to grandparent visitation.
All 50 states currently have some type of “grandparent visitation” statute, through which grandparents and sometimes others (foster parents and stepparents, for example) can ask a court to grant them the legal right to maintain their relationships with their grandchildren. But state laws vary greatly when it comes to the crucial details, such as who can visit and under what circumstances. And the courts give great deference to a parents decision to limit grandparent visitation. Approximately twenty states have “restrictive” visitation statutes, meaning that generally only grandparents can get a court order for visitation — and only if the childs parents are divorcing or if one or both parents have died. States with more permissive visitation laws allow courts to consider a visitation request even without the death of a parent or the dissolution of the family, so long as visitation would serve the best interests of the child.
All 50 states currently have some type of “grandparent visitation” statute, through which grandparents and sometimes others (foster parents and stepparents, for example) can ask a court to grant them the legal right to maintain their relationships with their grandchildren. But state laws vary greatly when it comes to the crucial details, such as who can visit and under what circumstances. And the courts give great deference to a parent’s decision to limit grandparent visitation. Approximately twenty states have “restrictive” visitation statutes, meaning that generally only grandparents can get a court order for visitation — and only if the child’s parents are divorcing or if one or both parents have died. States with more permissive visitation laws allow courts to consider a visitation request even without the death of a parent or the dissolution of the family, so long as visitation would serve the best interests of the child.
