questions & answers

Question: My grandparents want to adopt me. I have lived with my grandparents in their house since I was 2. My mom recently remarried and I have not live with her from last july. She wants to move to another state. I feel my granparents are my parents. Can she force me to leave.

Answer: Biological parents generally have the superior right (even over grandparents) to decide where their children will live - and also to make other major life decisions for them. Grandparents *can* try to petition the superior court for legal custody under ARS 25-415, but it is a difficult process, and the deck is deliberately stacked against them - mostly because society prefers to keep children united with their true parents absent real proof of serious neglect, abuse, spousal violence or other criminal activity that affects the ability to raise a kid.