It could be a state-by-state thing, but my understanding is that they don't get involved in custody issues unless abuse, neglect, etc already got them involved.

In our case Pinky voluntarily signed the three kids over to us. There were some interviews by family court people, a hearing and it was done. Had Pinky contested it, I believe the entire thing would have been handled within the family court system. DYFS would have been called only if they had witnessed anything or had a previous case.

Custody is determined by the State. Since The Constitution did not state parental rights, the courts have "traditionally" found in favor of parents, even over the best interest of the child. Grandparents do not have legal standing in the courts which usually makes it a case of your word against the parents. If you initiate the custody battle, you would be wise to have a family attorney which can be VERY expensive. Many family lawyers do not want to take custody cases because they long and expensive and most people cannot afford them. If you go through DCF they will do investigation and save you mega bucks on court costs. Remember that guardianship is separate from custody. Even if you hire attorney the court will probably ask DCF to be involved. Each state is in fact different. Some are considered "child friendly" and others are not. Texas has not been kind to grandparents. Georgia is extremely friendly to grandparents raising grandchildren. Given that each case is different, you would be wise to start with a consultation with family attorney before you decide. We won custody when the bio dad and his crazy wife created a chaos and took gs out of state to hide him so he could not go to DisneyWorld with us. They also broke the judges rule not to speak with media and had us all over TV and the newspapers as the grandparents who were trying to "steal" the grandson. I can give you more info if you decide to go further. Send me a message and I will send you my email. Hope the info I have supplied will help you. It is definitely in the best interest of the child if you can give them a stable environment. Good luck.

I just went to the courts. In the state of Illinois it is almost impossible to get custody of a grandchild but we did. When I went to get guardainship of the other gd, I just filled out the paperwork and went and talked to the judge. I took all of the paperwork from the first case. The judge thanked me for taking on the responsiblity of another child and asked what he could do to help out grandparents...let me tell you I gave him a ear full. He stated that by the grandparents keeping the children away from dcf, it made his job so much easier. I wish you luck...

We also paid a family law attorney for an hour of her time before we went to court. She outlined everything that we needed to have, what could happen, etc. etc. She said that if, at any time, we felt we were in over our heads (or if one of the bios showed up to contest we could ask the judge for a postponement so that we could get a lawyer.

There wasn't a single attorney in the hearing room that day - it was the saddest thing, to see one family after another after another assume legal custody for young children.

kslady we did just that. No social services involved. Hired our own lawyer and filed for guardianship of our 6 year old granddaughter. It was a matter of going to the court house and filing papers for guardianship. Neither parent contested it, I was ready for that if necessary. The fee for our lawyer was $600.00. We have the right to provide complete guardianship over her. Best thing we ever did.

I have attended two day long workshops on guardianship in Illinois. One was in Springfield and the other was in Chicago where all of the Family Court Judges spoke. All affirmed that guardianship gives the caregiver (no matter the relation) the power to sign up for school, get medical care, etc. The bio parents can challenge the guardianship at any time in the future, even if they do not contest at first hearing. Cook County judges told us that they always place the bio parents rights first, best interest of child second, and grandparents have no legal standing. This is not based on personal opinion but on the Constitution and present laws. We were told we would never get custody but we continued to fight for visitation and the bio dad and his crazy wife eventually showed the court through their actions that they could not handle parenting and custody was then awarded to us. Child protective services (or DCFS) has not done the greatest job but the courts usually rely on their findings. I have spoken to the head of DCFS. DCFS was ordered to contract out to other services (like Catholic Charities) to act on behalf of DCFS and this has not been reversed. In our case, the court appointed a State GAL and we hired a private GAL to protect our gs's rights. The states are encouraging grandparents as foster parents. However, one must always remember that becoming a foster parent opens your home to investigation by the agencies involved to be sure the children are receiving safe care. Many have become foster parents and eventually adopted the grandchildren with CPS help. The costs of these adoptions is much less expensive.