A guardian handles the care, maintenance and well-being of a child. A child’s parents are usually the child’s guardians, but the court can change who the child’s guardians are. In Alberta, every child (under 18 years old) has at least one guardian if they are not married and not in an adult interdependent relationship. Most times, a child’s guardians are the child’s parents, but not always. Some children have many guardians at the same time. The Family Law Act lists the responsibilities of guardianship. They include: making daily decisions about the child supervising daily activities of the child deciding where the child will live deciding who the child can have relationships with making decisions about the child’s education making decisions about the child’s extra-curricular activities deciding the child’s cultural and language upbringing deciding the child’s religious and spiritual upbringing deciding if the child should work and other employment matters consenting to the child’s medical treatments granting consent when required receiving and responding to any notices that a guardian is entitled to receive dealing with any legal proceedings relating to the child appointing someone to act on the guardian’s behalf in an emergency situation or when the guardian is temporarily absent receiving health, education and other information that affects the child exercising other powers necessary to carry out the responsibilities of guardianship Last Reviewed: March 2021