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S.D. Codified Laws § 25-5-30

Circumstances suggesting serious detriment to child

Applied in 9 court decisions — leading case In Re the Guardianship of S.M.N. (2010)

Most recently applied in Melius v. Songer (August 2025)

Source: SL 2002, ch 126, § 2.

How often courts cite this section

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citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

Serious detriment to a child may exist whenever there is proof of one or more of the following extraordinary circumstances:

(1) The likelihood of serious physical or emotional harm to the child if placed in the parent's custody;

(2) The extended, unjustifiable absence of parental custody;

(3) The provision of the child's physical, emotional, and other needs by persons other than the parent over a significant period of time;

(4) The existence of a bonded relationship between the child and the person other than the parent sufficient to cause significant emotional harm to the child in the event of a change in custody;

(5) The substantial enhancement of the child's well-being while under the care of a person other than the parent;

(6) The extent of the parent's delay in seeking to reacquire custody of the child;

(7) The demonstrated quality of the parent's commitment to raising the child;

(8) The likely degree of stability and security in the child's future with the parent;

(9) The extent to which the child's right to an education would be impaired while in the custody of the parent; or

(10) Any other extraordinary circumstance that would substantially and adversely impact the welfare of the child.

Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.