I'm about to be 18 in 4 months

[Unregistered]

I'm about to be 18 in 4 months but I'm a junior in high school, i wanna move out when I'm 18. I live in Mississippi. if I do move out, can the police or DHS do anything to make me go back home since I'm still in school?

[ccsmod8]

RE: I'm about to be 18 in 4 months

Hello there –

Thank you for getting into touch with us here at the National Runaway Safeline on our public bulletin board, we are always here to listen and here to help in any way that we possibly can. From your bulletin, it sounds like you are going through a very tough time right now dealing with everything. Seems like it’s getting very overwhelmed with everything that has been going on, especially since you’re thinking about leaving home. It can be very frustrating not knowing what to do or what your next step might be from this point on.

Like we tell a lot of our callers and/or people that email us, the laws on that specific subject of running away vary from state to state, so our advice would be call your local non-emergency police number to get more information on that. You could ask hypothetical questions that they can answer for you. Generally what typically happens in each state is if you are below the legal age of majority (18 in most states except Alabama and Nebraska [19 or upon marriage], and Mississippi [21]), your parents would be able to make a runaway report in the event that you do run away. Since it’s only considered a statues offense and not a crime to run away, the only thing that would happen is that the police will pick you up and bring you back home. This is of course if you had any interaction with the police directly or if they stopped you to ask you a few questions.
It sounds like you aren’t really sure if this is something that you are completely sure of. How do your parents feel about this? Your parents may give you permission to live with another family or on your own, but without getting an official document from the court they would still be legally responsible for you. Which means that they can also take away that permission at any given moment and take you back home to live with her once again. Have you tried talking to your parents about your thoughts of moving out of the house? Maybe having a solid plan about moving out and how you plan on achieving this goal might help them see things on your level.

If you give us a call on our 24/7 hotline at 1-800-RUNAWAY (786-2929) we could help you find resources in your area and could potentially help you brainstorm a possible solution to the issues you are having. We also have an online chat service available every night from 4:30-11:30PM CST that is available through our website (www.1800runaway.org).