Do Grandparents Have Visitation Rights in Florida?

Why Florida’s Law Is So Narrow

Most states let grandparents ask a court for visitation fairly broadly. Florida does not, and the reason is constitutional rather than political.

Article I, Section 23 of the Florida Constitution contains an express right of privacy that most state constitutions lack. In Beagle v. Beagle, 678 So. 2d 1271 (Fla. 1996), the Florida Supreme Court held that this privacy right protects a parent’s fundamental decisions about raising a child, and that the State may not intrude on those decisions absent a demonstrated harm to the child. Later decisions — including Sullivan v. Sapp, 866 So. 2d 614 (Fla. 2004) — extended that reasoning to families that were not intact, striking down nearly every provision of Florida’s older grandparent visitation statute.

The result: a grandparent’s love for a grandchild, however deep and however unfair the separation feels, is not by itself a legal basis for a Florida court to order visitation over a fit parent’s objection.

In 2015, the Legislature enacted the current statute, section 752.011, carefully drawn to survive that constitutional standard. It works — but only because it applies to a very small set of families.

Who Can File Under Section 752.011

A grandparent (the statute includes great-grandparents) may petition for visitation only if:

• Both parents are deceased, missing, or in a persistent vegetative state; or
• One parent is deceased, missing, or in a persistent vegetative state, and the other parent has been convicted of a felony or an offense of violence showing behavior that poses a substantial threat of harm to the child’s health or welfare.

“Missing” has a statutory definition — whereabouts unknown for at least 90 days after a diligent search that includes inquiries of relatives, hospitals, recent employers, state and federal agencies, utility and postal providers, law enforcement, and at least one electronic person-locator database.

If your situation does not fit one of those two doorways — for example, the parents are simply divorced, or one parent has cut you off after a family falling-out — a Florida court has no authority to order visitation under Chapter 752, no matter how strong the relationship was.

The Two-Step Court Process

Even a qualifying grandparent has to clear two hurdles.

Step one — the preliminary hearing. After the petition is filed, the court holds a preliminary hearing to decide whether the grandparent has made a prima facie showing of parental unfitness or significant harm to the child. If not, the court must dismiss the petition — and may order the grandparent to pay the parent’s reasonable attorney fees and costs. That fee-shifting provision is real, and it is why these cases should never be filed casually.

Step two — mediation, then a final hearing. If the showing is made, the court may appoint a guardian ad litem and must refer the case to family mediation under section 752.015. Florida’s stated public policy is that families resolve visitation disputes themselves. If mediation fails, the court proceeds to a final hearing, where the grandparent must prove by clear and convincing evidence that:

1. a parent is unfit or there is significant harm to the child;
2. visitation is in the child’s best interests; and
3. visitation will not materially harm the parent-child relationship.

Clear and convincing evidence is a demanding standard — well above the “preponderance” standard used in most family law disputes.

What the Judge Weighs

Section 752.011(5) lists the best-interests factors the court considers, including the emotional ties between child and grandparent, the length and quality of the prior relationship, whether the grandparent provided regular care and support, whether contact existed before the parent died or disappeared, the reasons the surviving parent ended contact, evidence of demonstrable mental or emotional harm from the disruption, the health of both the child and the grandparent, the guardian ad litem’s recommendation, any psychological evaluation, the child’s own preference if mature enough, and any written testamentary statement by the deceased parent about visitation.

Section 752.011(6) separately requires the court to assess material harm to the parent-child relationship — past disputes over childrearing, whether visitation would compromise parental authority, whether it can be scheduled without disrupting the family’s routine, and the psychological toll of the litigation itself on the child.

The Markel Act Exception

There is one situation where the burden flips. Under section 752.011(2), added by the Legislature in 2022 (the “Markel Act,” named for the killing of Florida State law professor Dan Markel), if one parent has been held criminally liable for the death of the other parent — or civilly liable for an intentional tort causing that death — there is a presumption in favor of reasonable visitation for the grandparent who is the deceased parent’s own parent. That presumption can only be overcome if the court finds visitation is not in the child’s best interests.

A 2026 bill, SB 674, would have opened a further pathway for grandparents who had housed the grandchild for at least six months before a parent’s death or disappearance. It died in committee on March 13, 2026, so it is not law.

Other Paths Grandparents Sometimes Have

Chapter 752 is not the only route, and for many Miami families it is not the right one:

• Chapter 751 — temporary custody by extended family. A grandparent already caring for a grandchild may petition for temporary or concurrent custody with the written, notarized consent of both parents. If a parent objects, the grandparent must show abuse, abandonment, or neglect as defined in Chapter 39. This grants legal authority over school and medical decisions without terminating parental rights.
• Dependency cases (Chapter 39). When the Department of Children and Families removes a child, Florida law prioritizes relative placement, and grandparents are often the first option considered. Section 39.509 also gives grandparents of a child adjudicated dependent a right to reasonable visitation, subject to the court’s authority to limit it.
• Existing divorce or paternity cases. Section 752.011(8) strongly encourages courts to consolidate a grandparent visitation action with a pending section 61.13 case to spare the child duplicate litigation.

Two more limits worth knowing: a grandparent may file an original visitation action only once every two years absent good cause, and a visitation order can be terminated after the child is adopted by a stepparent or close relative unless the section 752.011 criteria still apply.

Grandparent Visitation in Miami-Dade County

A Chapter 752 petition is filed in the county where the child primarily resides — for Miami families, with the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts, in the family division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. The family filing fee is approximately $409, and the parents must be personally served under Chapter 48. Grandparents with household income near or below the poverty threshold can apply for a fee waiver using the Application for Determination of Civil Indigent Status.

Miami-Dade’s Family Court Services handles the mediation the statute requires, and in practice that mediation is where most workable arrangements actually get made — often a negotiated schedule the family can live with rather than a court order neither side wanted. Multigenerational households are the norm across Hialeah, Westchester, Kendall, and Little Havana, and many South Florida grandparents have been a grandchild’s primary caregiver for years, which frequently makes a Chapter 751 temporary custody petition the stronger tool than a Chapter 752 visitation petition.

Arturo R. Alfonso P.A. has advised Miami-Dade families on custody, time-sharing, and grandparent rights in English and Spanish for over 35 years. If you have been searching for a family law attorney near me in Miami because you have lost contact with a grandchild, the honest first step is a candid look at which statute — if any — actually fits your family. We are glad to have that conversation.

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