16 and leaving.

[Unregistered]

Hello. I am 16. In a week, I am leaving home. I was wondering if my parents don't call the police, would I still be considered a run away? And if they do call the police, what will happen if I am caught?

[ccsmod8]

RE: 16 and leaving.

Hello,

Thank you for getting into contact with us here at the National Runaway Safeline and writing to our bulletin board. It sounds like you have a bit of concern about leaving our home when your 16 years old. It seems like that can be very confusing and pretty frustrating not to know the answer to that question. Now is there anything that is going on at home that is causing you to want to leave home at 16 years old?

Unfortunately, here at the NRS we cannot tell you in definite terms on what would happen for someone at the age of 16 years old to run away. Laws on that specific subject vary from state to state, so our advice would be call your local non-emergency police number to get more information on that. What typically happens though; your parents are able to make a runaway report in the event that you do run away, but since it’s only considered a statues offense the only thing that would happen is that the police will pick you up and bring you back home. Again this does depend on your specific state laws and police policy. It sounds like you have given a lot of thought in to what you want to do in your situation though. If you were to run away, what kinds of things do you think that your parents would do? What is your overall plan (i.e. housing, transportation, financial stability, school options etc)?

Once again thank you for writing into the NRS, we are always here to listen and here to help you with everything we can.