This guide covers grandparent and third-party rights systematically, from the constitutional framework through standing, the substantive standards, procedure, and alternatives to litigation. The opening parts set out the parental liberty interest and the decision that governs the field, including what it held, what it left open, and how states responded. A central part treats standing — the threshold that decides most of these cases — cataloguing the relationship, triggering event, intact-family, residence, and harm requirements that statutes impose. Separate parts cover the doctrines through which a functional parent is treated differently from a stranger, the consent element that unifies them, and the distinct standards applied to visitation and to custody. Later parts cover minor guardianship and consensual arrangements as alternatives, kinship placement and the relative preference when an agency is involved, the additional requirements that apply to a child subject to the Indian Child Welfare Act, interstate jurisdiction, evidence and proof, and procedure from petition through appeal. Tables and worked examples appear throughout.