---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO DOMESTIC RELATIONS - VISITATION RIGHTS (Establishes guidelines for the family court to use to decide petitions for visitation by grandparents based on a best interest of the grandchild standard.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO DOMESTIC RELATIONS - VISITATION RIGHTS (Establishes guidelines for the family court to use to decide petitions for visitation by grandparents based on a best interest of the grandchild standard.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 5903"
citation: "Rhode Island HB 5903 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Grandparents Rights", "Domestic Relations", "Children and Families", "Courts", "Minors"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Coughlin", "Lombardi", "Mendonca", "Shanley", "Solomon"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 13
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-03-10"
last_action: "2017-07-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/72c10f64-5531-4cfc-9525-eb0517f8a5b9"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "7c62f0a8e12b9fe2334ba416ac52db234565e4f37516c638a9d840a82b1a0472"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island HB 5903 (2017) — AN ACT RELATING TO DOMESTIC RELATIONS - VISITATION RIGHTS (Establishes guidelines for the family court to use to decide petitions for visitation by grandparents based on a best interest of the grandchild standard.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **5903** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText17/HouseText17/H5903.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **71–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Coughlin — primary (person)
- Lombardi — primary (person)
- Mendonca — primary (person)
- Shanley — primary (person)
- Solomon — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-03-10** 03/10/2017 Introduced, referred to House Judiciary `referral-committee, introduction`
- **2017-03-10** 03/10/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration
- **2017-03-15** 03/15/2017 Committee postponed at request of sponsor (03/15/2017)
- **2017-04-20** 04/20/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (04/26/2017)
- **2017-04-26** 04/26/2017 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 Scheduled for consideration (06/29/2017)
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 Placed on House Calendar (06/29/2017)
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 House read and passed `passage`
- **2017-06-30** 06/30/2017 Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar (06/30/2017)
- **2017-06-30** 06/30/2017 Senate passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2017-07-13** 07/13/2017 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-07-18** 07/18/2017 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/72c10f64-5531-4cfc-9525-eb0517f8a5b9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).