Rhode Island Grandparents' Rights: Visitation and Custody Laws

Rhode Island does not give grandparents an automatic right to see a grandchild. Rhode Island's law is unusually fragmented, with three separate grandparent-visitation statutes from three different eras still on the books, each with its own trigger, and the U.S. Supreme Court cited Rhode Island's core provision approvingly at the same moment it was striking down a much broader law. This guide covers what a grandparent actually has to prove under each statute, and the separate de facto parentage route that can matter when a grandparent has been raising the child.

Information last verified on 2026-08-12. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

The Fit-Parent Presumption in Rhode Island

Under Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), a fit parent's decision to limit a grandparent's contact with a child is presumed to be in the child's best interest, and a court cannot override that presumption without real evidence. Rhode Island's statute is not just consistent with this rule; the U.S. Supreme Court used Rhode Island's own text as a positive example while deciding Troxel itself, discussed below.

Three Separate Statutes, Three Different Doors

Rhode Island has three grandparent-visitation statutes on the books, each confirmed current at webserver.rilegislature.gov:

• Section 15-5-24.1: available on the death of the grandparent's own child (the grandchild's parent), "whether or not any divorce or custody proceedings were ever commenced."
• Section 15-5-24.2: available where the grandchild is "a child of the marriage" in an active divorce proceeding.
• Section 15-5-24.3: no death or divorce trigger required, but the grandparent must have "repeatedly attempted to visit" in the 30 days before filing and been refused.

These are three different doors into Family Court, and only Section 15-5-24.3 sets out a detailed list of findings the court must make. Section 15-5-24.1 is a single sentence that imposes no 30-day condition of its own, and no published Rhode Island decision holds that it imports Section 15-5-24.3's findings. In practice, a grandparent whose child has died often files under both sections at once. That is what happened in Colleen MacTavish-Thurber v. Timothy Gauvin, 202 A.3d 232 (R.I. 2019): the petition was filed under Sections 15-5-24.1 and 15-5-24.3, the Family Court made Section 15-5-24.3's findings, and the Supreme Court affirmed the denial under an abuse-of-discretion standard, deciding the appeal summarily on its show-cause calendar. In a footnote, the Court held that Section 15-5-24.2 was "inapplicable to the case before us" because "the petition was not filed during a divorce proceeding." Which section a grandparent files under is therefore worth discussing with counsel, because it shapes what the court has to find.

What Section 15-5-24.3 Actually Requires

Section 15-5-24.3(a)(2) requires the Family Court to find, and to set forth in writing, that visitation is in the child's best interest, that the petitioner is fit and proper, that the petitioner repeatedly attempted to visit in the 30 days before filing and was refused as a direct result of a parent's actions, that there is no other way to visit without court intervention, and that the petitioner has, by clear and convincing evidence, successfully rebutted the presumption that the parent's decision to refuse visitation was reasonable. The best-interest finding has its own list of factors, added by amendment in 2017, including the nature of the relationship, the time the two spent together, the child's own preference, and the parent's stated reasons. The court may also award attorney's fees to the parents if the petition is denied, a real cost a grandparent should weigh before filing.

Why Troxel Cited Rhode Island as a Model

The U.S. Supreme Court's own opinion in Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. at 70, cited Section 15-5-24.3(a)(2)(v) by name, alongside similar statutes from other states, as an example of how to structure a grandparent-visitation law that respects a fit parent's constitutional rights. That is one of the strongest confirmations available for any state's grandparent-visitation statute; it means Rhode Island's core provision was cited approvingly, not struck down, at the same moment the Court was invalidating Washington's much broader law. The MacTavish-Thurber court noted the same point in its standard-of-review discussion.

The Custody Track: De Facto Parentage

Rhode Island has no custody statute written specifically for grandparents, but it does have a general nonparent route that a caretaking grandparent can use. The state adopted the Uniform Parentage Act in 2020, and Article 5 of Chapter 15-8.1 covers de facto parentage.

Under R.I. Gen. Laws Section 15-8.1-501(a)(1), a court must adjudicate a person to be a de facto parent if that person proves, by clear and convincing evidence, all seven of the following: that they resided with the child as a regular member of the child's household for a significant period of time; that they engaged in consistent caretaking; that they undertook the full and permanent responsibilities of a parent without expecting financial compensation; that they held the child out as their own; that they established a bonded and dependent relationship that is parental in nature; that another parent of the child fostered or supported that relationship; and that continuing it is in the child's best interests.

Section 15-8.1-201(6) lists an adjudication of de facto parentage as one of the ways parentage is established, which is what opens the door to a custody claim. An adjudication of de facto parentage does not disestablish the parentage of any other parent. This is a demanding standard, and it is aimed at a grandparent who has genuinely been raising the child rather than one who wants more visits. See Rhode Island child custody laws and can grandparents get custody for the general custody landscape.

Visitation After an Adoption

An adoption decree under R.I. Gen. Laws Section 15-7-14 makes the child, "to all legal intents and purposes," the child of the adopting petitioners. The one Rhode Island statute that creates continuing contact after an adoption is Section 15-7-14.1, the decree of open adoption. It allows the court to grant post-adoption visitation, contact, or conveyance-of-information privileges, but only to a birth parent who consented to the adoption, voluntarily terminated the parent-child relationship, or has a timely appeal pending from an involuntary termination. It also requires a negotiated agreement between the birth parents and the adoptive parents that the court approves, and the child's consent if the child is at least 12.

Section 15-7-14.1 does not reach grandparents or other relatives, so Rhode Island's open-adoption mechanism gives a grandparent no route of its own. A grandparent facing an adoption should raise with counsel what happens to any existing visitation order rather than assume either outcome.

How and Where to File

These cases are filed in Family Court, by miscellaneous petition. Section 15-5-24.1 is available whether or not any divorce or custody proceeding was ever commenced, and Section 15-5-24.3 requires no trigger at all beyond the 30-day refused-visit requirement, so an independent filing is possible under either. Section 15-5-24.2 requires an actual, active divorce proceeding. No official statewide fee schedule was located; confirm current filing costs with the Family Court clerk.

Mediation Before Litigation

Because Section 15-5-24.3 itself requires proof that the grandparent "repeatedly attempted to visit" and was refused, and that there is "no other way to visit without court intervention," a documented, good-faith effort at informal contact is not just good practice in Rhode Island, it is close to a legal prerequisite under that section. Mediation or a direct approach to the parent should always come first, both because it may succeed and because it builds the record the statute requires if it does not.

What Litigation Actually Looks Like

Rhode Island's clear-and-convincing standard is written into Section 15-5-24.3 itself, and it is genuinely demanding. A losing petition can result in the grandparent paying the parents' attorney's fees. Expect a fact-intensive proceeding built around the specific findings Section 15-5-24.3 requires. If a grandparent decides to pursue a petition, a family-law attorney licensed in Rhode Island can evaluate whether the 30-day refused-visit history and the other required findings are realistically provable.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Rhode Island grandparent visitation law. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Rhode Island's de facto parentage route and its rules on contact after an adoption are separate questions from grandparent visitation, and outcomes depend heavily on the specific facts. Consult a family-law attorney licensed in Rhode Island before relying on anything here for a specific case.

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Last updated: 2026-08-12.

Related reading: Grandparents' rights by state, grandparent visitation rights, Rhode Island divorce laws.