Colorado Grandparent Rights & Visitation Introduction

Under C.R.S. 19-1-117, a grandparent can petition a Colorado family law court for reasonable grandchild visitation rights in the following situations:

1. The grandchild's parents have obtained a dissolution, annulment, or legal separation,
2. The child has been placed into the legal custody of someone other than a parent, or
3. The child's parent, who is the child of the grandparent seeking visitation, has died.

There is no automatic right to grandparent visitation - the Colorado family law court must find that it is in the best interests of the child to have grandparent visitation. And, once granted, Colorado grandparent visitation may be modified or terminated if it is in the best interests of the child.

Finally, Colorado grandparent rights and visitation are terminated by the child's adoption, or termination of the parental rights of the child's parent who is the child of the grandparent.

Grandparent Rights Recent Legal Developments

Grandparent visitation rights were temporarily thrown into a state of confusion by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 2000 case, Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), the Court ruled that states which allowed grandparents visitation rights against the wishes of a child's parent violated the Constitutional right of a parent to raise the child. Bottom line - family law judges must give due deference to the wishes of the child's parents.

Following the Troxel decision, the Colorado Court of Appeals confirmed that grandparent rights and visitation is still valid in Colorado. The court noted that the standard for grandparent visitation is whether it is in the "best interests of the child", as defined by C.R.S. 14-10-124(1.5), and one of the statutory criteria the Colorado family law court is required to consider when determining this is the wishes of the child's parents. The court further pointed out that Colorado family law courts have always held that the parents' wishes are entitled to "special weight and significance," and the same standard applies to Colorado grandparent rights and visitation.

A more recent case, In the Matter of R.A. and T.A., 04CA0503 (Colo. App. 2005) could potentially narrow grandparent rights dramatically, and is currently on appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court. The specific issue in that case was whether adoptive parents have the same rights as natural parents. The child's paternal grandparents established grandparent visitation, and when the child's maternal uncle and aunt adopted the child, the trial court continued the grandparent visitation over the objection of the new adoptive parents.

The R.A. court analyzed numerous decisions interpreting the "special weight" which had to be afforded to parents' wishes, and concluded that:

in the case of fit parents, "[a]bsent a showing of harm, (or threat thereof) it is not for the state to choose which associations a family must maintain and which the family is permitted to abandon."

Furthermore, to reinforce the difficult hurdle grandparents may face, the court elaborated that only the separation from a grandparent who played a parental or quasi-parental role in a child's life would meet the standard of harm required.

No Colorado Grandparent Visitation If Family Intact

In February 2005, the Colorado Court of Appeals issued a ruling, In the Matter of D.C. and D.C., 04CA0249 (Colo. App. 2005) which reiterated that a grandparent in Colorado could not seek visitation with grandchildren when both of the children's natural parents were alive and there had been no prior Colorado family court actions.

The grandparent argued that the family was not intact, since the children lived with their mother, and not the father. However, the absence of a court action was fatal to that argument. Citing the Troxel decision, the Court of Appeals stated: "[T]he statute ensures that grandparent visitation decisions made by parents of intact families, where there has been no prior court intervention, are not challenged."

Colorado Grandparent Custody Rights

There are three primary avenues through which a grandparent in Colorado may obtain custody over a grandchild:

1. If Colorado authorities remove a child from a parent's home, under C.R.S. 19-1-115 grandparents in Colorado have preference for the child's placement over other potential foster parents (but not preference over the other parent).
2. Any person, including a grandparent, with actual physical care of the child can petition a Colorado family law court for allocation of parental responsibilities in Colorado. C.R.S. 14-10-123.
3. Any person, including a grandparent, who had physical care of the child for at least 6 months, within 6 months of the termination of the physical care, can petition a Colorado family law court for an allocation of parental responsibilities. C.R.S. 14-10-123.

Colorado grandparent custody rights are not automatic. Rather, like a parent seeking custody, the Colorado family law judge must determine first whether the grandparent would be a suitable custodian. Courts may consider any credible evidence of past child abuse or neglect by the grandparent in determining whether to award custody.