17 year old runaway law in Colorado

[Guest]

I live in Colorado and am 17 years old, i plan to move out once I turn 18 and can support myself financially. I have a 16 year old friend with a 13 year old sister who don’t have the best home life. There’s a history of emotional and verbal abuse, being locked out of the house for up to 7 hours, and I worry for them both especially as my friend is diagnosed with mental illnesses that the parents don’t help with. By the time I move out I will be 18, and my friend will be 17 so we had been thinking of having her move out to get away from her parents, but she is worried because her parents will not consent to this and she does not want to leave her sister alone with them. I was wondering if there’s any way to make a situation work in which they can both legally move in with me so that they don’t have to keep living in an unsafe household.

[ccsmod10]

We're thankful that you're looking out for your friend's wellbeing; regardless of what solution you implement to their situation, they're lucky to have someone like you in their corner. It sounds like your friends' parents have not always made their safety and wellbeing a priority, and you're worried that their condition could stay bad or get worse, and similar outcomes might occur for their younger sibling. You've highlighted some good points, that if your friend did run away to stay with you and their parents didn't consent, they could report them as a runway and police could potentially intervene to try and return them to their legal home.

One option you have is to report what's transpiring in their home to child protective services. Intense, patterned verbal abuse and locking a child out of the home (a form of neglect) could result in an investigation. However, it is unlikely that they would be taken out of their home and brought in to stay with you.

They do have the option to live with you, doing so legally is a complicated matter for the reasons above. We're here to help you and your friend as best as we can. You or them can contact us at 1-800-RUNWAY or 1800runaway.org to talk about things in greater detail.