• "Early Mother's Day Gift (4 of 6)" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: ¡Ìo...?'x? (Vox Efx) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  

Applicable Laws

• There are two South Dakota Codified Laws regarding grandparent visitation rights: SDCL 25-4-52 and 25-4-54.
  
  

Reasonable Rights of Visitation

• SDCL 25-4-52 states, "The circuit court may grant grandparents reasonable rights of visitation with their grandchild, with or without petition by the grandparents...." The court will decide when and how often visitation occurs.
  
  

Best Interests of the Child

• When deciding whether to grant visitation to grandparents, the court will consider the best interests of the child. This may include information about previous contact with the child, type of relationship and other factors.
  
  

Parent-Child Relationship

• To be granted visitation rights, grandparents must prove their visits will not significantly interfere with the parent-child relationship. If their visits could interfere, they must show prior denial or prevention of visitation.
  
  

Denied or Prevented Visitation

• If the child's parent or custodian has denied or prevented visitation between grandparents and the grandchild, the court may still grant visitation, even if it could interfere with the parent-child relationship.
  
  

Adoption Cancels Visitation Rights

• According to SDCL 25-4-54, after a child is adopted by someone other than a stepparent or grandparent, grandparent visitation rights no longer apply.