17 year old runaway turning 18

[Guest]

when your 17 and turning 18 can the cops look for you still or no because your an adult now please respond asap

[ccsmod7]

Hello there, thanks for reaching out today.

So the age you can usually leave home without permission is 18. So when you are 17 turning 18 soon it just depends on how local police respond. They could possibly take a runaway report for you up until; the day you turn 18 and return you home if you are found. Or they could take other actions such as doing a safety check rather than returning you home, or refusing to take a runaway report for you at all. To learn how your local police would respond to an older 17 year old leaving home, you might reach out to your local non-emergency police number and ask hypothetical questions about whether they take runaway reports for 17 year olds or not.

Please do not hesitate to call or chat us if you have any other questions or if you would like to talk more about your situation.

Best of luck,

NRS

[Guest]

If a runaway has truancy charges from school will it carry over if they stay gone till yhey are 18? Will they go to jail for it?

[ccsmod16]

Hello, thanks for posting to our forum today! Sounds like you have some questions regarding truancy and being a runaway. We are here to help and provide resources!
We are not legal experts so we cannot say for sure what would happen in this situation. As far as we know, truancy is a status offense so a person cannot go to jail for it. However, if you have a probation officer or case manager for your charges, you may want to reach out to them and ask what could happen. You may also be able to reach out to someone at the school like a resource officer or social worker. Another option is to reach out to a legal aid resource in your area. We can look those up for you if you would like to call (open 24/7, 1-800-786-2929) or live chat us (open 4:30-11:30pm central time).
Best of luck with this tricky situation and please do reach out if we can help any further!

[Guest]

Hi, I tried posting but I don't know if my question was posted. I'm planning on running away, I'm 16 and I live in NJ. Currently I'm in truancy court for skipping school due to mental illness. I'm planning on running away soon. Will this affect my truancy court and charges, and will they press charges on my mother because of me running away while I have truancy?

[ccsmod2]

Thank you for reaching out to us here at National Runaway Safeline. It sounds like you plan on running away. Having a plan about where you would go and how you would take care of yourself is important. If you decide to runaway, your guardian has the right to file a runaway report. With a runaway report, if the police find you they would return you home. Running away is not illegal but if you decide to stay with a friend, they could get in trouble for harboring a runaway. You mentioned that you are currently in truancy court for skipping school, we are not legal experts so we cannot say for sure whether what will happen. You could contact your local police through their non emergency number or we could help you find local legal aid. Please feel free to contact us directly via our 24 hour crisis hotline (1-800-786-2929), email, or live chat if you would like resources or just need to talk.

[Guest]

hi if I have a runaway charge and I turn 18 will I have any consequences?

[ccsmod6]

Hi,

Thanks for reaching out. That is a really good question. We are not legal experts, but as far as we know if you leave home before the age of 18, then turn 18 in a state where the age of majority is 18, you would not get into trouble for having run away before you were 18.

If you need any more help or have any more questions please feel free to reach out again. You can call us at 1-800-RUNAWAY, we are 24/7 so someone will always be here to answer and help in the best way we can.

[Guest]

I'm 16 about to turn 17, on probation and about to go back to court for something. They said they would send me to juvinille prison for a year. Im wondering if I run now untill im 18 or 19 then then the charges will be dropped and I won't have to go back to court. Someone please help.

[ccsmod16]

Hello, thanks for posting! It sounds like you are worried about an upcoming court date for your probation. That is understandable to be concerned about. We are not legal experts and do not know where you live, but we can speak in general. In most states, 18 is the legal age that you can move out of your parents’ home without permission. If you do leave, your parents can call the police and file a runaway report, meaning if the police find you, they will return you back home. It is not a crime to run away, it is a status offense like truancy. However, while being on probation, if the police find you, you would likely run into more trouble for being truant, any school you miss, and not coming to court dates or meetings with your probation officer.
Perhaps reaching out to your PO or parents about your anxiety regarding court may help. Even talking to some friends if any know what is going on may help some. We are also here 24/7 by phone (1-800-786-2929) and 4:30-11:30 pm Central Time by online chat if you want someone to talk to about these feelings and more options for your situation.
Best of luck with your court case! We are here 24/7 to listen and help!

[Guest]

If I am 17 and in stat custody In Mississippi if I run till I'm 18 what will happen and will my charges get dismissed in youth court when I turn 18

[ccsmod6]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to National Runaway Safeline. We know it takes a lot to reach out about personal events.

Your question is a really good one. Unfortunately because we are not legal experts we can not say whether or not your chargers will be dropped if you run away until you are 18. Normally if a youth leaves home before the age of 18 and then turns 18 the charges are dropped, but because you are in state custody we are not totally sure if that would make things different. You may want to contact a case worker if you have one and ask them about it as they may have a more definite answer.

If you have anymore questions or just need to talk the National Runaway Safeline is here 24/7 to help and listen.

[Guest]

I want to runaway at 24hrs before I turn 18. My birthday is New Years and I want to runaway the 31st of December to another state as a vacation for about a week. Meaning I’ll be 18 the next day that I’m there. Can I get in trouble or anyone else with me?

[ccsmod11]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. It sounds like you’re planning a vacation but are concerned you’ll be filed as a runaway if you leave before you turn 18. To our knowledge, if you ran away 24 hours before you turned 18, you would not face any sort of legal repercussions after you turned 18 (assuming 18 is the age of majority in your state). It seems unlikely that a police department would file a report if you turned 18 in 24 hours. Keep in mind we are not legal experts, and the information we give out doesn’t necessarily hold true everywhere in the U.S.

We hope this response was helpful! We’d love to hear from you about your experience using our crisis email/forum. Your feedback plays an important role in helping us improve our services to youth and families. Please click the link to fill out our survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/we_care_what_you_think

[Guest]

Hi my son is 17 years old and continues to runaway how many times must me and my wife go through this or what can be done to get some help for the police or the courts

[ccsmod5]

Thanks for reaching out. It sounds like your family is going through a lot and it must be stressful when your son runs away. Though we aren’t legal experts, there are some general options we can share. First, if you would prefer for your son to live elsewhere, you can give him permission to stay with a friend or another family member. Generally all that is required of you in this situation is that you make sure he is staying somewhere safe. Another option is possibly to pursue court intervention; many states use a diversionary system to help families where the youth continue to run away. This has a different name from state to state, but is generally called something like MINS (minor in need of supervision), CHINS (child in need of supervision), etc. For more information about this process you can reach out to a family lawyer, your local police, or your local juvenile court. If you need additional help finding these resources, please feel free to reach out to us at 1-800-786-2929. We hope this was helpful and we wish you the best of luck. We encourage you to give us your honest feedback of our forum services at the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/we_care_what_you_think

[Guest]

I'm 17, and I turn 18 in 10 months. I've broke my parents trust so many times that they have gotten tired of it and might kick me out. I'm ready to leave to because I'm ready to start my own life. I want to runaway until I'm 18.. but school is the only problem, if I leave and don't attend school will my parents get in trouble for me not attending school?

[ccsmod1]

Hi there,

Thank you for contacting us at the National Runaway Safeline. We are here 24/7 to listen and to support.

We're sorry to hear about all that has been going on recently and can understand how it hard it must be and why you would want to start fresh. We are not legal experts, but there could potentially face charges if anything happened to you while you were still a minor and under their custody. To get answers about what it would look like to not be going to school or to ask legal questions about what that might mean, you can contact the National Center for Education Helpline at 1-800-308-2145. They would be able to give you more guidance of what that would look like going forward.

We are also here at 1-800-RUNAWAY (786-2929) if you need help finding shelters or other resources you might need if you get kicked out or you decide to leave your home. Let us know how we can best help.

NRS

[Guest]

Hi I am 17 , I turn 18 next year . I'm still in high school and in foster care and I have to go to court for being out past curfew , if I run away and don't return until I'm 18 can I still get in trouble with foster care or court ?

[ccsmod3]

Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out to National Runaway Safeline and sharing a little bit about what is going on. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of knowledge about the foster care system and the best resources to ask this question is your case worker, as this may be a difficult thing to talk to your case worker about. If you call into us, we may be able to talk more specifically about your situation and look for some legal resources in your area that may be able to answer your questions. Our number is 1-800-RUNAWAY and we are here 24/7.
Stay strong and we are here to listen,
-NRS

[Guest]

Hi I’m 17 turning 18 on July 12 my mother is crazy and over protective. To put it short she grounded me for being less then a minute late getting home not to mention I work all the time and she constantly drains my bank account. I have somewhere I could go but my mother refuses to let me leave until I turn 18. I can’t take this anymore I want to leave now. I’m still in high school I graduate on may 18 but my last day of school is may 11 I wanted to leave on may 11 but I don’t want cops getting involved because again my mother is crazy and will probably say I’ve been kidnapped or something stupid. Please someone help me I live in Mississippi so I know the legal age to leave the house is 21 or 18 but I want to leave now.

[ccsmod15]

Thank you for reaching out to the National Runaway Safeline. It sounds like you’ve been going through a tough time, but we are here to support you and help you in any way we can. That sounds really hard and stressful to have that conflict with your mom.

We’re not legal experts here at NRS. Generally, there are three ways to leave home before being a legal adult: with parent permission, if there is abuse in the home, or through emancipation (a legal process where youth become an adult before the normal age). Generally it’s not illegal to leave home, but your mom could file a runaway report, the police could get involved, and they could bring you home. The people you’re staying with could potentially get in trouble for having you stay there. Some police departments don’t accept runaway reports for 17 year olds, but the policies may vary by each department. You could consider calling your local nonemergency police department to ask about their policies. We also have legal aid resources here if you have specific questions about the laws in your state.

If you haven’t already, you could also consider reaching out to a trusted adult, relative, worker/teacher/counselor at your school for help and support. You could also consider talking to your parents about how you’ve been feeling. Just so you’re aware, we have a conference calling service here where we could help mediate a conversation between you and your mom.

There are also many resources that could help you work through conflict at home or help you with anything else you may need. If you want to talk more about what’s been going on, or if you would like more information about resources, you can call us at 1-800-RUNAWAY (1-800-786-2929) or chat with us online.

Again, thank you for contacting us. It sounds like you’ve been going through a really hard time, but you’ve shown a lot of strength by working through these challenges and reaching out for help. If you ever need anything in the future, please feel free to call us or chat with us online. We’re always here to listen and here to help.

[Guest]

I’m a 17 year old lesbian I turn 18 in 2 months, I’ve been with my girlfriend who just turned 17 last month, for about 8 months her parents are homophobic and hate the fact we are together she has been repeatedly kicked out of home but her parents call the police and say she’s a runaway about 2 months ago her mom showed up to my house with cops threatening to sue my dad for who knows what. We have done nothing wrong but given her a place to stay and food on her plate. She went back home a couple weeks ago but she got kicked out again. Her parents have threatened us again saying that my dads going to jail and court. Can my parents get in trouble with the law for this.

[ccsmod5]

Hi,
Thank you for reaching out. It sounds like you’re in a really frustrating situation. We want to thank you and your family for advocating and supporting your girlfriend; she’s lucky to have kind people like you in her corner. Since we’re not legal experts, we cannot speak with 100% certainty on this issue. However, generally speaking there is such a charge as harboring a runaway, so it is a possibility that your girlfriend’s mom could take your parents to court. As far as we know, harboring a runaway is usually considered a misdemeanor and may result in a fine. Beyond this, we encourage you and your father to reach out to a lawyer or your local non-emergency police line for more information. If you need help locating a legal resource, please feel free to give us a call and we can try to locate one for you.
Thank you again for reaching out. We hope this was helpful and we encourage you to reach out by phone if you need additional resources or need help figuring out your options. Our number is 1-800-786-2929 and our lines are always open. If you have a moment, we'd appreciate your feedback of our crisis services at the following link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/we_care_what_you_think

Stay safe!

[Guest]

I am 17 and will be 18 in 1 month.
if I run away and come back when I'm 18 would I still legally get in trouble?

[ccsmod7]

Hello there, thanks for reaching out today.

We are not legal experts, we we can only answer your question generally. If you runaway with 1 month until you turn 18 it is up to local police with whether or not they would accept a report for you when you are so close to 18. If they do take a report for you, generally after you turn 18 you would not be considered a runaway since you are a legal adult and it is within your legal rights move out. While there might not be any legal consequences for coming back at 18, one thing to consider is that your guardian does not have to allow you back in the house once you become an adult.

Please do not hesitate to call or chat us if you have more questions or if you would like to talk through your situation. We are here to listen, here to help.

Best,

NRS

We hope this response was helpful! We’d love to hear from you about your experience using our crisis email/forum. Your feedback plays an important role in helping us improve our services to youth and families. Please click the link to fill out our survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/we_care_what_you_think.

[Guest]

My sister is 17 and is in dss, she ran away last month. She will be 18 in 9 months when she turns 18 will the police still look for her?

[ccsmod5]

Hi,
Thanks for reaching out. We are not legal experts, but generally speaking the police will not pursue a runaway once they have become a legal adult. In most states, this is at age 18 so it’s likely that your sister will not run into issues once she turns 18.
Thank you again for reaching out. We hope this was helpful and we encourage you to reach out by phone if you need additional resources or need help figuring out your options. Our number is 1-800-786-2929 and our lines are always open. If you have a moment, we'd appreciate your feedback of our crisis services at the following link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/we_care_what_you_think