Step Parents' Parental Rights

Studies have suggested that almost a third of children today are living in a stepfamily. Accordingly, the majority of these stepfamilies include the children's biological mother and a stepfather. In some cases, the children have never known their biological father. The stepfather is often viewed as the children's actual father, but this relationship is not always supported by law. Step parents' parental rights are a modern issue that needs legal clarification in many states.

There are many situations in which step parents' parental rights are needed or useful. Signing school permission slips, a teenager's driver's license, or the authorization of medical treatment are scenarios when it would be useful for legalized step parents to have parental rights concerning stepchildren. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many states, though this problem can be assuaged if the stepparent is able to adopt any stepchildren. Step parents who have raised a stepchild may also wish to have some degree of custody or visitation rights in the event of a divorce, but this phenomenon has only been recently addressed. Several recent laws in select states, like Washington, have recognized stepparents or cohabiting parents as de facto parents. This combats stepparents general status as legal strangers, and provides them with basic parental rights.

Giving step parents parental rights does not come without some potential drawbacks. As the importance and value of stepparents to stepchildren is dignified by law, stepparents may be required to pay child support in the case of divorce. Some proposals require the length of child support payments to be half of the number of years the stepparent was married to his or her spouse. However, courts generally do not require child support to be paid when a biological father is already paying child support. New Hampshire is one state that has progressively adopted laws that support step parents' parental rights.

More and more states are beginning to recognize the necessity of adopting laws supporting parental rights for stepparents, cohabiting couples, and gay couples.