KTRV Fox 12 Change In Custody Law May Help Nampa Grandparents

Change In Custody Law May Help Nampa Grandparents

Nampa, Idaho -- They just want their kids back, only they're not the parents.

Travis and Linda Pickering are fighting for custody of their three grandkids.

"Nana I just want to come back and live with you and papa. That is all the kids say to us," said Linda Pickering, who says Dayla, Starla, and Emily has spent most of their lives at their Nampa home. 

The couple is among the many who've raised their grandchildren in Idaho.

In February, Pickering says her daughter, the mother of the three girls and an admitted meth addict, sought medical help for her addiction.

That's when the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, according to policy, took the kids.

"(My daughter) has signed over legal rights to the kids to Travis and I.  She has also given me power of attorney over her," said Pickering.

The problem is, before July 1 of this year, that didn't matter.

The Pickerings have been locked out of courtrooms, visits with the girls have been restricted and now they say IDHW is separating them.

"The kids, every time we see them, beg to come home with us," said Pickering.

For years in Idaho, grandparents, for lack of a better way to put it, had no rights.

But again, that was before July 1.

"We have a different society now than when a lot of these custody laws were written," said Rep. Darrel Bolz, R-Caldwell.

Bolz was part of a unanimous Legislature that passed what's called the De Facto Custodians Law during the 2010 session. The law gives provisions for anyone meeting the right criteria to gain custody of children, and Bolz said the Legislature specifically had grandparents in mind.

"There are those cases where the child would actually be better off with someone else, then this helps for those provisions," he said.

The Pickering's attorney, Dick Harris of Caldwell, has filed a Motion to Intervene, a document that basically asks to for his clients to be involved in the decision.

"There are people that have significant relationships with children that have been custodians for the children, and those persons should have standing to appear before the court," said Harris.

It's been six months since the girls have slept in their still-made beds. On Monday, the Pickerings' motion will go before a judge, and they hope to get help from a law they feel was made to bring their girls home.

"Who knows better where these kids want to be," said Pickering, "than these kids."