Governor signs new Kansas grandparents rights bill into law

Grandparents visitation rights after divorce
May 18, 2011
Finding out what your grandparents rights are
May 23, 2011

grandparents rightsGov. Sam Brownback has signed a new Kansas grandparents rights bill into law, in an effort to give grandparents more rights in child-in-need-of-care cases.

The House Substitute for Senate Bill 23, which expands grandparents rights to take over parenting when their children are deemed unfit parents, was signed by Brownback earlier this month. The bill gives grandparents automatic standing in court in child-in-need-of-care cases.

Without automatic standing as interested parties, grandparents are not necessarily sent notice of proceedings involving their grandchildren, resulting in the children being placed in institutions or foster care. Many grandparents testified in the legislative proceedings that the lack of automatic standing had led to their children being placed in bad situations or where reasonable grandparents visitation was not allowed.

Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita sponsored the bill and testified that the bill “is pretty simple, allowing grandparents to be notified without a lot of additional hassle. We as a state want to keep families together and keep kids out of foster care.”

“I’m just happy for the grandparents,” Faust-Goudeau said at the bill signing. “Now (they) will have the right to be in court and speak up.”

The bill was the top priority of the Kansas “Silver Haired Legislature,” a group elected by seniors across the state to recommend bills and help guide state policies on the elderly including grandparents rights.

For more detailed information about grandparents rights see my book No Greater Loss.

7 Comments

  1. Kathy says:

    Glad to see this. My graddaughter wants to live with me I can only hope that I can scrape up the money to return an attorney! For the record thank you Scott Wasserman!

  2. Kathy says:

    I meant to say to hire an attorney!

  3. diana johnson says:

    My son is in larned state hospital for being a sex offender
    Bourbon co. says i have no rights because of my son. I learned that the state will provide you with one if you cannot afford one. I was denied.So now they have adopted him out to a family and now I can’t find anything out about him or visit him. Is there anything I can do about this? My son is not there because of his son, but more importantly,where do my rights fit in?

  4. neil says:

    I must admit this one has me at a loss. There is an attorney who runs the site for Grandparents rights. His site is GRO.org. I hope this helps. GRANDPA NEIL

  5. betty meredith says:

    I had my 2 grandchildren living with us at our home the father got arrested on a drug charge the mother didn’t want the kids so I was taking care of them and I love them so much I did everything with my grandkids well the mother went behind are back and the fathers and gave Bentley to a gay couple that we thought were are friends and they went took him from us now they wouldn’t let us see him or talk to him we have taken care of both grandkids since they were born in our home the judge would not even let us keep them he said he didn’t care about family and we have supported them the mother has never helped with the baby girl for a year Bentley will be 3years old in july Alexus just turned 1 this month please contact me at 785 249 3725 or jmeredith5@cox.net

  6. betty meredith says:

    would like to get both grandchildren back home where they can be together with us would like to get a reply on what I can do the mother uses drugs and was selling them but she gave her 2 kids up and now pregnant again and still doing drugs all she done was lie about everything

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