Legal Guardianship Transition

[kprazhym]

My question involves guardianship in the State of: California

My husband and I are legal guardians of our 4 year old grandaughter since shortly after her birth. Her mother delivered when she was 14 years old and they have lived with us since her birth. She is not with the baby's father, but he pays support and has regular visitation. Our daughter graduated high school and is working almost full time. After some negotiation, we have agreed to let her move into an apartment in February with a friend and our granddaughter.

She has began to take on responsibilities such as child care expenses. We are trying to allow her to take on most of the responsibilities for the raising and caring for her daughter. Our goal was never to keep guardianship, but to release it when her mom proves responsible enough. We are not totally comfortable yet, with the maturity and decision-making of our daughter to release guardianship and we still provide health coverage for our granddaughter that her mom can't afford (our grandaughter is only eligible for this coverage if we have guardianship). We also still have to occassionally exercise veto power in decisions regarding our granddaugther, such as the apartment our daughter was wanting to move into that was in a totally unsafe area.

My question is, what do we need to be aware of in regard to this transition? I would like to just keep the guardianship in place for now to ensure we can step in if needed and also provide health. But we are not sure what our liabilities or precautions should be with her not living in our home. Is there something we need to file with the court to say she is living with our daughter?

Any advise regarding this transition would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Mr. Knowitall]

You need to be sure that you're in compliance with any court orders, seeking modification if necessary. You need to be careful that a change of residence won't trigger something in your health insurance coverage that might end the coverage for your grandchild.