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SUBJECT: GROWS

This is a request for your support of proposed legislation that would give grandparents in Washington State the right to reasonable visitation with their grandchildren.

Grandparents’ Rights Organization of Washington State (G.R.O.W.S.) is a determined assemblage of loving grandparents who seek visitation with their grandchild or grandchildren when one or both parents have unreasonable and without cause severed the relationship with the child(ren).

Washington State has not had a grandparent’s visitation rights law since 2000 when the Supreme Court decision in Troxel vs. Granville ruled our state’s law “breathtakingly broad” and dictated that those laws unconstitutionally interfered with fundamental parental rights. Additionally, the Washington State Supreme Court decision on April 7, 2005 upheld the USSC decision and dashed any hope for visitation. Washington State is the ONLY state in the union that does not legally protect the children’s right to have visitation with their grandparents.

We believe this broad ruling is one where our state legislators must take action and pass grandparents visitation rights law that will pass constitutional muster both at the state and federal levels. Without a state law there is no way to petition the court to see our grandchildren if there are unreasonable parents stopping us from seeing them. We do not believe it is in the best interest of our grandchildren to continue this practice. Our members are loving grandparents who simply want reasonable visitation.

It is our labor of love as grandparents to work for visitation rights to see our grandchildren and for us to be able to work with the state legislature so that grandparents can have their rightful place with their grandchildren. Our cause is not to undermine the fundamental rights of the parents; we do however want a fair and just means to reconnect with our grandchildren. Grandparents play a significant role in the lives for their grandchildren and not matter what changes in their day to day family lives, the grandparents are always there as that steady anchor and stability that children need in the current mobile society.

As this move forward into an actual bill, we hope that you would be supportive.

I look forward to your response on this matter.