Legal and Custody Help for Grandparents Raising Grandkids
There are many reasons why grandparents might end up raising their grandchildren. Situations like death, divorce, illness, neglect, abuse, or legal troubles can change family roles. If you are raising your grandchild or grandchildren, it’s important to understand the legal aspects involved. Here are some key things to consider:
Can You Make Decisions for Your Grandchild?
School Registration: Are you allowed to register your grandchild for school?
Medical Decisions: Can you make medical decisions for them?
Health Insurance: Are you able to get them health insurance?
Financial Responsibility: Who is responsible for paying for clothes and other necessities? Are there programs to help?
Taking in your grandchild doesn’t automatically give you legal rights to make decisions for them. Unless you secure a legal caregiving relationship, you might have trouble enrolling your grandchildren in school, authorizing medical treatment, and getting financial assistance and health insurance. It’s important to discuss these legal issues with your grandchild’s parents, if possible, and agree on how to proceed.
Types of Legal Issues You Might Face
The legal issues can vary based on where you live and the specific needs of your family. It’s essential to seek legal help to ensure you’re doing the right thing for your family. Consider these questions:
Safety: Have the children been removed because the parents were unfit? Are you worried the parents might want the child back and not give them proper care?
Permanency: If the stability and safety of your grandchildren are threatened, you may want legal protections to ensure they stay in a safe environment.
Visitation: Are the parents interested in visiting? Is that best for the children?
Cost and Time: Which custody options require more time in court or more legal expenses for you?
Benefits and Health: Understand how your custody choice could affect your grandchild’s health insurance coverage or benefits.
Temporary Physical Custody
If you have physical custody without a court order, you have no legal rights to make decisions for your grandchildren about health care and school enrollment. You also can’t make legal arrangements for someone else to take care of your grandkids if something happens to you.
Legal Solutions
Power of Attorney
If the parents are willing, they can create a power of attorney that gives you temporary authority to make specific decisions for their child, like seeking medical care or registering them in school.
Medical and Educational Consent Laws
Some states have consent laws that allow grandparents to make medical and school decisions for their grandchildren without going to court.
Kinship Foster Care
When a child is removed from their parent’s home by the state, grandparents can take temporary custody through kinship foster care. This option allows grandparents to care for their grandchild’s day-to-day needs but requires state consent for major decisions.
Legal Relationship Options
For more permanent custody arrangements with broader legal protections, grandparents raising grandchildren have three options:
Legal Custody: A judge awards you custody, giving you authority to make decisions for your grandchild.
Guardianship: Similar to legal custody, but usually more permanent and handled in probate court.
Adoption: You become the child’s legal parent, and the biological parents lose their rights.
Financial Help
Raising grandchildren can be expensive. Here are some options for financial assistance:
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF): Offers cash assistance for low-income families.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI): Monthly cash benefits for families with mentally or physically disabled children.
Kinship Foster Care and Subsidized Guardianships: Financial assistance if you are your grandchild’s foster parent.