State to state differences in grandparents rights

Trying to figure out what grandparents rights actually are is hard enough, but here in the USA we have to grapple with the fact that every state does things a little different. There is no national uniformity on these issues and every year we see state court challenges, some that side with the proponents of grandparents rights and some that do not.

Unfortunately, laws regarding things like grandparents visitation rights and grandparents custody issues are not uniform, and much depends on where you live. All states currently have some type of grandparent visitation rights laws on the books through which grandparents can ask a court to grant them legal rights to maintain their relationships with their grandchildren. Individual state laws, however, vary greatly when it comes to the crucial details, such as who can visit and under what circumstances.

Using resources like No Greater Loss you can get a handle on the general state of grandparents rights, as well as a ton of useful pointers on how to approach this issue. However, you also need to check into the laws of your particular state.

Different states can basically be broken down into two categories: restrictive and permissive.

About twenty US states have restrictive grandparents visitation rights statutes, meaning that generally grandparents can get a court order for visitation only if the child’s parents are divorcing or if one or both parents have died.

However, other states have more permissive grandparents visitation rights laws that 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.

Both restrictive and permissive visitation statutes have been challenged in court by parents who argue that the laws are an infringement on parents’ rights to raise their children as they see fit, or by grandparents who believe these statues ignore grandparents rights almost completely.