• Grandparents in Iowa may seek visitation rights to see theirgrandchild.grandpa's little girl image by Renata Osinska from Fotolia.com
  
  Iowa's laws concerning grandparent's rights allow a grandparent to seek visitation with his grandchild through the court system. There are specific events and circumstances that permit a grandparent to file a petition for visitation rights to maintain a relationship with his grandchild.
  
  

Filing a Petition for Visitation

• A grandparent can only file a petition for visitation under specific circumstances. The court will consider the petition for events including if the grandparent's child has died, the parents are divorced or they are undergoing a divorce, the child is placed in a foster home or the parent is unfit and unreasonably denies visitation. Grandparents in Iowa can't seek visitation if the family is together.
  
  

Establishing Visitation

• The grandparent may file a petition with the district court seeking visitation to begin the legal process. If the parent objects on the grounds that visitation with the grandparent isn't in the best interest of the child, and the court agrees, visitation will likely be denied. If the court recognizes visitation is in the best interest of the child, the petition may be granted if certain conditions are met. To secure visitation, the grandparent must present convincing evidence that she had a substantial relationship with the child, visitation is in the child's best interest and the parent responsible for deciding visitation issues is unfit to make that decision. Custody hearings for grandparents' visitation rights are held in the district of the parent who has custody of the child.
  
  

Proving the Conditions for Visitation

• A substantial relationship can be proven with evidence showing the grandparent has had consistent interaction with the child. If the grandparent's contact with the child was limited or sparse, she will need to prove the limitation wasn't due to a lack of interest, but, for example, due to a parent's interference. When courts are considering the best interest of the child, they mainly rely on evidence such as witness testimony by psychologists, who may be appointed by the court, to determine what effect visitation, or lack thereof, will have on the child. Proving a parent unfit to make visitation decisions for his child requires proof that he fails to provide the child with, for example, basic needs like food and shelter or that he maintains the child in an unsafe environment.