This toolkit answers your questions about giving someone else short-term parental authority over your child without a guardianship. A Delegation of Parental Authority is a form you can use to give someone else temporary legal power to make decisions for your child. This form is sometimes called a short-term parental power of attorney. For general information, read the Articles. Read the Common Questions if you have a specific question. To draft a Delegation of Parental Authority, use the Forms link.
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Common Questions
You do not have to go to court to give someone a DPA. However, you must go to court to get guardianship. If you agree to a guardianship, you also agree to suspend your parental rights during the guardianship. Your parental rights are not suspended by giving someone a DPA. You keep the power to make decisions for your child even if you name a caregiver in a DPA.
A parent can end a DPA at any time without going to court, but only a judge can end a guardianship. In addition, a guardian may be able to ask a judge for custody or to end your parental rights permanently.
Both parents do not need to sign the DPA. You can sign a DPA alone even if you have joint legal custody. However, if you have joint legal custody and only one parent signs, there will be some limits on the DPA.
If parents share legal custody and only one signs the DPA, the DPA will only affect that parent’s rights to care and custody of the child. If only one parent signs the DPA, the person you name to care for your child can only make day-to-day decisions about your child. The caregiver would not be able to make decisions that would impact major issues such as changing school, religious training, or non-routine medical decisions.
The DPA only gives the caregiver power while you and the other parent are gone. Even if there is a DPA, if a parent is present to make decisions for your child, the person named in the DPA may not interfere.
The DPA only gives the caregiver power while you are gone. Even if there is a DPA, when a parent is present to make decisions for your child, the caregiver does not have the right to interfere.
You can revoke, or cancel, a DPA at any time. You can end a DPA by telling the named caregiver that you are ending it. It is a good idea to also end the DPA in writing.