Need help

[Unregistered]

I live with my mother and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend is very mean and mentally abusive. He is involved in illegal drugs as well. It is a very unhealthy envirment. My biological father is in prison. I have a step dad who lives about 45 minutes away and I really want to go live with him because it is a healthy stable environment. I'm 16, my mom says she won't let me leave here. How do I go about moving with my step dad?

[ccsmod2]

Hello,

Thanks for contacting us. We’re sorry to hear things are not going well in your mom’s house and that her boyfriend is causing problems. That’s got be tough. It’s great that you are opening up about what you’d like to do and are getting information before you make a decision. We’re here to help in whatever way we can.

We aren’t legal experts but we can try to provide you some answers. Any change of guardianship must go through the court system, so you probably would need to talk to a lawyer. If you give us your state of residence we can try to look up what legal resources may be available to you. Usually there are a few general legal aid holiness that you can call free of charge.
Another option you may want to consider is making a report with your state’s child protective services hotline. You can explain that your environment is unhealthy and this may be a factor in the courts granting a change of guardianship although, again, we cannot say this for sure.

Probably the best way we can help is if you give us a call at 1-800-RUNAWAY. We’re totally confidential and anonymous and, although we never tell you what to do, we can provide some resources and help you brainstorm what your next best step is. We hope to hear from you. Good luck!