About Grandparents Visitation Rights

Grandparent's visitation rights give grandparents the right to see their grandchildren through court ordered visitation. Not all states offer grandparent's visitation rights, as there is often times no reason for a child to be forced to see their grandparents. Each state differs on the law so be sure to check into your state's guidelines involving this.

• History: In the past, grandparents had no recognized right they could use to attempt visitation of their grandchildren. There was no way that a grandparent could enforce getting to see their grandchildren or maintain commitments that would force their children to see their kin.


• Types: The types of visitation rights offered to grandparents vary greatly from state to state. Some states allow a grandparent to go to court to receive court ordered visitation while others offer no guarantee of anything when it comes to the rights of the grandparent, as they are not legal guardians of the child. 


• Rationale: The overall idea behind creating laws involving grandparent's visitation rights is to establish strong family bonds for a child, especially in a child's life whose parents are divorced. This has not always been the case as many states have found. 


• Supreme Court Rulings: In 2000, a judge in Washington state denied a grandparent's wish for visitation because it interfered with the rights of the parents as every parent has the right of "care, custody and control of their children," as long as no physical harm is being done to them. In every case of grandparent's visitation rights, special weight is placed on the shoulders of the grandparents to prove that the parents are not fit to care for their child and thus should be given visitation rights. 


• Effects: There is no such law that states a parent must give grandparents visitation rights. There has to be some sort of extenuating circumstance that proves a parent to be unfit in order to receive visitation rights for grandparents, the simple fact that they want to see them while the parent doesn't speak with their parents or because they live out of state is not reason enough to warrant visitation to a grandparent.