“Will I get my daughter's child if she goes to jail?”
My 24-year-old daughter is on trial for child endangerment and the case against her is stacked pretty high. If she goes to jail, would I be the guardian of her daughter? The father is no longer in the picture, and I'm not sure who she has listed as her child's guardian.
3 Answers
Guardianship and physical custody depend on the length of stay and if the state gets involved. If no one takes legal custody and your daughter does not sign custody over to someone, the state will take custody and then determine who is the best legal and physical guardian of the child. Child Protective Services always prefer a child to remain with a family member or someone they know if it is a safe option.
This one is hard to answer. CPS will look at all possible kinship placements before placing a child into an adoption situation. You can request that you be considered for such a placement. I advise you to do whatever you can to prepare home, take parenting classes, set up whatever you need for a possible placement.
The simple answer is that child custody is decided by the courts. This may already have been determined when the father and your daughter parted company, but please take good legal advice urgently so that your grand daughter's best interests are safeguarded. My further recommendation is that under the circumstances you describe you take good legal advice urgently to safeguard your grand daughter's best interests even if your daughter does not go to jail, and you do not say if CPS is involved in which case even more so
