Grandparents Visitation Rights

One Texas Senator wants to make it easier for grandparents to see their grandchildren.

In March 2013, Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) introduced S.B. 1148, which would have changed key provisions of the Family Code. One section of the bill removes the unwritten requirement that grandparents have an expert witness in a child custody or visitation case, while the other eliminates the restrictive requirements in Section 153.433(3).

S.B. 1148 died in committee in the previous session, and must be reintroduced when the Legislature reconvenes in January 2015.

Grandparents’ Rights

The 2000 Supreme Court decision Troxel v. Granville made an uphill battle for grandparents seeking custody an even more difficult climb. That case held that parents have a fundamental Constitutional right to raise their children without interference from grandparents.

But families have changed a lot in the last 14 years. A recent Pew Research study found that the number of grandparent full-time caregivers has increased 20 percent since 2000. The economic downturn and increased overseas military deployments, among other factors, have sent more than three million kids to live with their grandparents.

Despite these changes, Texas remains committed to the “parental presumption” in family law. In addition to proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the denial of possession or access would significantly impair the child’s physical health or mental well-being, the natural parent must be dead, incarcerated or not have actual or court-ordered possession of the child.

All is not lost if you are a grandparent desperate to see your grandchildren. Assume that the children have lived with you for a few months while the parent(s) are unwilling or unable to be the primary caregiver, for whatever reason. If the children are doing well in school and have made friends, it’s not a stretch to say that uprooting the children and placing them in an unstable situation may not be in their best interests.

There are other situations as well. If your grandchildren are living with you, speak with an attorney in Humble about formalizing custody arrangements. We serve families in Harris and surrounding counties.