Texas Grandparents Visitation Law

Divorce – Grandparents Visitation – Texas

Suit for Access

A biological or adoptive grandparent may request access to a grandchild by filing:

(1) an original suit; or

(2) a suit for modification as provided by Chapter 156.

A grandparent may request access to a grandchild in a suit filed for the sole purpose of requesting the relief, without regard to whether the appointment of a managing conservator is an issue in the suit.
Title 5, Chap. 153, § 153.432
Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 20, § 1, eff. April 20, 1995.

Possession of and Access to Grandchild
The court shall order reasonable access to a grandchild by a grandparent if:

(1) at the time the relief is requested, at least one biological or adoptive parent of the child has not had that parent’s parental rights terminated; and

(2) access is in the best interest of the child, and at least one of the following facts is present:

(a)the grandparent requesting access to the child is a parent of a parent of the child and that parent of the child has been incarcerated in jail or prison during the three-month period preceding the filing of the petition or has been found by a court to be incompetent or is dead;

(b) the parents of the child are divorced or have been living apart for the three-month period preceding the filing of the petition or a suit for the dissolution of the parents’ marriage is pending;

(c) the child has been abused or neglected by a parent of the child;

(d) the child has been adjudicated to be a child in need of supervision or a delinquent child under Title 3;

(e) the grandparent requesting access to the child is the parent of a person whose parent-child relationship with the child has been terminated by court order; or

(f)the child has resided with the grandparent requesting access to the child for at least six months within the 24-month period preceding the filing of the petition.

Title 5, Chap. 153, § 153.433
Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 20, § 1, eff. April 20, 1995.
Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1397, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.

Limitation on Right to Request Access
A biological or adoptive grandparent may not request possession of or access to a grandchild if:

(1) each of the biological parents of the grandchild has:

(a) died;

(b) had the person’s parental rights terminated; or

(c) executed an affidavit of waiver of interest in child or an affidavit of relinquishment of parental rights under Chapter 161 and the affidavit designates an authorized agency, licensed child-placing agency, or person other than the child’s stepparent as the managing conservator of the child; and

(2) the grandchild has been adopted, or is the subject of a pending suit for adoption, by a person other than the child’s stepparent.

Title 5, Chap. 153, § 153.434
Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 20, § 1, eff. April 20, 1995.