---
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: "SB 383"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 383 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Domestic Relations", "Children and Families", "Courts"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Archambault", "Conley", "DiPalma", "Lombardi", "Lynch Prata"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 15
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-03-02"
last_action: "2017-09-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/62c6a67e-209e-4e5b-aebd-745a1e16ddcf"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "28eabed6b471cdb0b3a35871e23229ed693d483ee9775a4653377c062ad630af"
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 SB 383 (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. **383** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText17/SenateText17/S0383.pdf)

## Votes

- Passage — **33–0** (pass) · legislature
- RELATING TO DOMESTIC RELATIONS - — **69–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Archambault — primary (person)
- Conley — primary (person)
- DiPalma — primary (person)
- Lombardi — primary (person)
- Lynch Prata — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-03-02** 03/02/2017 Introduced, referred to Senate Judiciary `referral-committee, introduction`
- **2017-03-07** 03/07/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration
- **2017-03-08** 03/08/2017 Meeting postponed (03/09/2017)
- **2017-04-21** 04/21/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (04/27/2017)
- **2017-04-27** 04/27/2017 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-05-02** 05/02/2017 Placed on Senate Calendar (05/04/2017)
- **2017-05-04** 05/04/2017 Senate read and passed `passage`
- **2017-05-05** 05/05/2017 Referred to House Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 Scheduled for consideration (06/29/2017)
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 Committee recommends passage in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-06-30** 06/30/2017 Placed on the House Consent Calendar (06/30/2017)
- **2017-09-15** 09/15/2017 Placed on the House Consent Calendar (09/19/2017)
- **2017-09-19** 09/19/2017 House passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2017-09-21** 09/21/2017 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-09-27** 09/27/2017 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/62c6a67e-209e-4e5b-aebd-745a1e16ddcf`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).