I am taking care of 2 of my nephews. Their mom, my sister, is deceased. They've been living with me for 4 Years now. My parents have full custody of the oldest child (16 yr old) and my parents have parental custody of the youngest (12yr old). They want to sign over legal custody to le since I have the children. So I can add them to my health insurance and other things. How do we go about transferring of custody to myself? Would we have to go to court or would this be a simple process since my parents are willing to sign over custody.
There are numerous threads asking the same question.
You can search this site for other examples.
Children are not puppies, kittens, or cars.
Parents don't OWN children, therefore parental rights and responsibilities can;t be "signed over to another person, or assigned to a relative".
You have two options, neither one easy or quick.
You have the death of one parent on your side.
However, the father has rights, unless she's in prison or has already been stripped of his.
If he's out of the picture, that makes your goal easier to achieve.
That is relative, however, because it is still difficult.
One: You can contact your state's child services agency. Inform them of your dilemma, and your desire to care for the children, because a relative has died your elderly parents now want to get you involved.
Child services will work with you to see if you can receive temporary or emergency custidy, while the matter is further adjudicated.
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TWO: You can hire a lawyer to try to get custody of the children, too.
It can be a lengthy, expensive, prying process.
At the moment your are as much a legal stranger to those children as am I.
