• Ohio has passed laws to grant grandparents custody rights of their grandchildren.walking the toddler image by jimcox40 from Fotolia.com
  
  Ohio has enacted legislation that pertains to custodial rights of a child's grandparents. There are three circumstances for which the state has granted rights to grandparents. These situations include when a child's parents have terminated their marriage or relationship, when one or both of the child's parents have deceased, and when the child is born to a single mother. Within each of these circumstances, grandparents hold visitation and custodial rights to their grandchildren.
  
  

Rights in a Divorce

• When a father and mother end their marriage or relationship, both maternal and paternal grandparents have the right to visit their grandchildren. An Ohio grandparent may request a court order to be awarded visitation rights for her grandchild. The Ohio courts will investigate whether visitation is in the best interest of the grandchild and then award visitation to the grandparent. It should be noted that within the state of Ohio, when a stepparent adopts a child, grandparent visitation rights are considered obsolete.
  
  

Rights After Parental Decease

• Ohio has instituted programs to assist grandparents, as well as other caregivers, visitation and custodial rights in the event that a child's parents are deceased. One such program is the Kinship Care program for Ohio. This program supports grandparents to avoid children being placed in the foster care system. It assists grandparents in obtaining custodial power of attorney for the child as well as supplements the caregiver's income to help support the child.
  
  

Rights During Single Parenthood

• When a single parent is deemed unfit, there are laws to protect the child. The Ohio General Assembly passed House Bill 130, which allows parental rights to be transferred to grandparents. The bill is also referred to as the Grandparent Caretaker Law. This law establishes power of attorney for the grandparent so that he may enroll the child in school, provide medical consent and make decisions in the best interest of the child.