Parental rights - Florida
Parental rights in Florida
2 of 3 questions have been reviewed for Florida. A question shown as "Not yet reviewed" makes no claim either way.
Educational reference, not legal advice. Nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. Family law is state-specific and it changes: a statute or case cited here may have been amended, repealed or overruled since the review date shown. Verify against the primary source before relying on anything on this page, and talk to a lawyer licensed in your state about your own situation.
When a non-parent or the state asks a court to override a fit parent's decision about their child, what must they show?
Florida: Harm or detriment required
Statute: Fla. Stat. sec. 752.011
Florida allows grandparent visitation petitions only in narrow family circumstances, such as both parents being deceased or missing, or one deceased or missing and the other convicted of a qualifying felony or violent offense. The court must dismiss without a prima facie showing of parental unfitness or significant harm to the child, and may grant visitation only on clear and convincing evidence of unfitness or significant harm, best interest, and no material harm to the parent-child relationship. A separate presumption for visitation applies where one parent is liable for the other parent's death.
Authority
- Fla. Stat. sec. 752.011(1), (4) Statute
the court shall hold a preliminary hearing to determine whether the petitioner has made a prima facie showing of parental unfitness or significant harm to the child. Absent such a showing, the court shall dismiss the petition ... the court may award reasonable visitation to the grandparent with respect to the minor child if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that a parent is unfit or that there is significant harm to the child, that visitation is in the best interest of the minor child, and that the visitation will not materially harm the parent-child relationship.
Can parents' own custody or child-support agreement bind them without a judge approving it?
Florida: Not yet reviewed
Not yet reviewed. This page makes no claim about Florida on this question.
One parent enrols the child in daycare, an activity or a private school without the other's agreement. Must the other parent pay a share?
Florida: Child care share limited to work or education related cost
Statute: Fla. Stat. sec. 61.30(7)
Child care is added to the basic obligation only when it is incurred because of employment, a job search, or education calculated to lead to employment, and it is capped at the level required for quality care from a licensed source. A parent who chooses a more expensive provider alone cannot pass on the excess, and care bought for a reason outside those categories is not an add-on at all.
Authority
- Fla. Stat. sec. 61.30(7) Statute
Child care costs incurred due to employment, job search, or education calculated to result in employment or to enhance income of current employment of either parent shall be added to the basic obligation. ... Child care costs may not exceed the level required to provide quality care from a licensed source.
How this was checked
Every citation here was checked against the primary source rather than a summary. U.S. Supreme Court quotes come from the official United States Reports PDFs published by the Library of Congress, and the reporter page shown is the page the quoted words actually print on. State case quotes come from the Caselaw Access Project's page-anchored text of the official reporter. Statutes and regulations are quoted from the issuing legislature's or agency's own site. Quotes are normalised to plain ASCII, which changes punctuation only, never words. Holdings are distinguished from dicta and from concurrences and dissents, which bind nobody, and contrary authority is included and labelled. Not yet reviewed is NOT a finding: it means nobody has read that jurisdiction's law for this question yet, and such a row carries no claim at all. No authority found is a different and weaker statement: a search was run and turned up nothing on point, which is not proof that nothing exists.
Dataset last reviewed 2026-10-17.