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The grandmother is apparently the person providing the majority of her support, hence she gets to claim the little girl.

Hope that helps.
That’s not the correct rule. There are two ways to qualify to claim the dependent exemption on a federal income tax return: the qualifying child rule and the qualifying relative rule. If someone is eligible to claim the person under the qualifying child rule then it is not possible to claim the person under the qualifying relative rule. A lot of the requirements for both tests are the same. But the key difference in this situation is that the qualifying child test looks at which home the child lived in for the greater part of the year to determine who gets the exemption. Under the qualifying child rule it does not matter which parent (or grandparent) provided the most support. It only matters that the child didnot provide over half his/her own support. Very likely the 9-year old kid did not provide over half her own support, for if she did then no one may claim an exemption for her under either test. (The qualifying relative test does look at the amount each relative provided for support, but that test only will apply if no one may use the qualifying child rule.)

So, it appears that the child has been living with the mother and grandmother, though for how long is not exactly clear. The post seems to imply the arrangement has been that way for the past couple of years. In that case, the child would have lived with both the mother and grandmother for more than half the year and both would then meet the basic test for claiming the exemption under the qualifying child rule and thus the qualifying relative test could not be used. Then the tie breaker rules are applied to determine which of the two would get the exemption: the mother or the grandmother. I won’t walk through those rules because for the OP it doesn’t matter which of the two may take it. All that matters is that he cannot claim the exemption because the child did not live with him for more than half the year. The only exception to this would be if the mother had executed a waiver agreeing not to take the exemption and instead give the exemption to him. Form 8332 may be used for that purpose. That waiver must be attached to his return. And the result would be same under the qualifying relative test even if he provided over half the support, by the way, given the way that the rules deals with divorced and separated parents. So either way, he’d need the waiver.

So even if the OP had provided over half the support it would not matter. The kid did not live with him for more than half the year. The kid did live with the mother and grandmother for more than half the year. In that circumstance it is impossible for him as the noncustodial parent to claim the exemption for the child without a waiver signed by the mother. The only way he could force the mother to provide that waiver is to go back to court to get a support order or change the current support order to give him the exemption. But he opens up the possibility the mother may then also seek more support in that proceeding too, she he ought to be careful about whether he ought to try for this.

The rules for the dependent exemption are found in IRS Publication 501.