17 turning 18 in 4 months wanting to move out

[Guest]

I'm 17 living in south dakota wanting to move out when I turn 18 (5 months away) but am still in highschool. I have planned to move in with my mom and finish school while living with her. there is no chance of me staying at my dads when i'm eighteen and was planning to move out the day before (since my bday is on a saturday). I don't want them to be there while i am moving my belongings out and so I was asking if I would get in any trouble if I moved out on the day before which is friday, It would be during school and during my lunch period where I would get all my stuff with my close friend and move it to my moms. any suggestions?

[ccsmod6]

Hi,

Thanks so much for taking the time to reach out to us tonight. It seems like you would rather live at your mom's place than your dad's and have been making those plans for yourself in the future. We are glad you are reaching out to us before making any set decisions! So from what you have said you are planning to move out the day before your 18th birthday. We are not legal experts, but can definitely give you some information on runaway laws and hopefully that can help you out.

So for the most part we know that youth who leave home under the age of 18 can be considered runaways. Your dad could file a runaway report for you if you were to leave home without his permission. Running away is not illegal, but it is considered a status offense. What this means is that you likely would not get arrested for running away but the police would be looking for you and would take you back home if they found you. Police using close runaway files once a youth turns 18, so the police may not pursue your case since you would be only a day from turning 18. If you leave home and turn 18 your dad would not be able to file a runaway report for you.

If you need anything else or just want to talk more about your situation please feel free to reach out to us again! You can call us at 1-800-RUNAWAY, we are 24/7 so someone will always be here to answer and help you as best as we can!