Parental Rights in South Dakota

Resolution Supporting the PRA

We did it! Thanks in part to your support, in 2010, the South Dakota legislature adopted a resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to propose the Parental Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and to pass it to the States for ratification. (Learn more about state resolutions.)

South Dakota Parental Rights News

Action Alert: Contact your South Dakota State Senator to Support Parental Rights!

February 23, 2022

Thanks to YOUR phone calls and emails, last week the South Dakota State House of Representatives passed South Dakota State Representative Sue Peterson’s parental rights bill, H.B. 1246, by an overwhelming vote of 63-5! H.B. 1246 is now pending before the South Dakota State Senate Judiciary Committee, and a vote could come as early as…

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South Dakota State Law and Parental Rights

At Risk

South Dakota does not have a state statute that explicitly defines and protects parental rights as fundamental rights.

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South Dakota Courts and Parental Rights

At High Risk

South Dakota's Supreme Court has held based on the Troxel case that parental rights cases do not require the strict scrutiny standard of review.

In Feist v. Lemieux-Feist, 793 N.W.2d 57, 60–61 (S.D. 2010), the Court wrote, "[W]e do not read Troxel as specifically requiring a finding of parental unfitness in third party visitation or custody cases. As we have noted before, Troxel only requires that 'special weight' be given to a fit parent's determinations regarding her children."