A guardian of the person is responsible for the child’s day-to-day care and has legal authority to make many of the decisions ordinarily made by a parent. These responsibilities generally include providing a safe home and appropriate supervision, arranging medical and dental care, making educational decisions, and ensuring that the child’s physical, emotional, developmental, and social needs are met.
The guardian is expected to act in the child’s best interest and may also be responsible for facilitating appropriate contact with the child’s parents and other family members, consistent with any court orders. A parent may request visitation, and the court may issue orders defining when and how contact will occur.
A guardianship is different from an adoption. It does not ordinarily create a new legal parent-child relationship or permanently eliminate the biological parents’ rights. Depending upon the circumstances, a parent may later ask the court to end the guardianship and return the child to the parent’s care. Until the guardianship is terminated or the child reaches adulthood, however, the guardian has the court-ordered authority and responsibility to provide for the child.