How Does Temporary Guardianship Work?

Temporary guardianships are precisely how they sound: they give guardianship of your children temporarily to a different adult. This can be for medical reasons, travel, or for different reasons. It is useful if you need someone to act in your child’s best interest, legally, when the parents are not around.

Selecting the Guardian

You will need to be able to completely trust the person you deem as guardian. They will have full legal control over your children during this temporary guardianship. It can be a parent, a sibling, or other relative, or it may be a friend or good acquaintance. There are not requirements to whom you may choose for this position. Always ask them before naming them in a guardianship request; they’ll need to let you know whether they are available for this or not.

Finding Need

There may not be a need for this filing. If you share custody with another parent then it is unnecessary, as that parent will be the acting guardian while you are unable. A good lawyer will be able to let you know whether you need to file a temporary guardianship or whether you are covered without this paperwork.

Forms

If you are certain that you will need someone to stand in as acting guardian for your child, you will need to find a temporary guardianship agreement form, fill it out in its entirety and have it notarized. It needs to be notarized to verify that the signatures on the form are correct and accurate.