Kelly Elmore adopted her stepdaughter after the child’s biological mother’s parental rights were terminated. The child’s grandparents intervened and obtained an order granting them regular visitation over the objections of Kelly and the child’s father. The Court of Appeals vacated the visitation order and remanded. Georgia law permits mandated grandparent visitation only when the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the child’s health or welfare would be harmed without it and that visitation serves the child’s best interests. The trial court found several statutory circumstances, including the grandparents’ prior caregiving and financial support, but stated that it was “bound” by those factors. The appellate court could not determine whether the trial court had independently exercised its discretion to find the required harm or had treated the factors as automatically establishing harm. Because that distinction was constitutionally important when parents oppose state-mandated visitation, the court required the trial court to apply the correct discretionary standard.