Obtaining Guardianship of 16 Year Old

[AudioPenguin]

I live in California and am now 19. I met this girl when I was 17 and we have been friends ever since. She lives in Arizona. We've kept constant contact and recently she has been kicked out of her mother's house due to constant disagreements. Her father abused her and wants her nowhere near his house. The girl hasn't been going to school in the past couple months now due to an unstable living place. I have recently gotten a new 2 bedroom apartment and a stable job and she wants to come live with me. I've spoken to her mother and her mother has stated that as long as her daughter's happy she doesn't care where she stays and she'd be willing to sign any papers necessary to make it legal. I don't want to go through any major legal processes, I simply want to know what I need so that she can go to school here without any legal issues rising up.

[Dogmatique]

I live in California and am now 19. I met this girl when I was 17 and we have been friends ever since. She lives in Arizona. We've kept constant contact and recently she has been kicked out of her mother's house due to constant disagreements. Her father abused her and wants her nowhere near his house. The girl hasn't been going to school in the past couple months now due to an unstable living place. I have recently gotten a new 2 bedroom apartment and a stable job and she wants to come live with me. I've spoken to her mother and her mother has stated that as long as her daughter's happy she doesn't care where she stays and she'd be willing to sign any papers necessary to make it legal. I don't want to go through any major legal processes, I simply want to know what I need so that she can go to school here without any legal issues rising up.

So where IS she living? Has Dad has custody revoked or parental rights terminated? If you've known about this child being neglected, have you called CPS?

[AudioPenguin]

She's been staying around at several friends' houses for the past month or two now. But my main concern with this is she hasn't been going to school because of it, and she's been getting more into the smoking and weed and what not. I don't support that and I want her to go to school. I have not called CPS. I don't intend to micro manage her or be her parent, I simply want to try to give her a stable environment with little to no accessibility to things she shouldn't be getting into and an opportunity to go to school on a regular basis.

[Dogmatique]

So you call CPS.

Seriously - if the situation is so bad, the authorities need to be involved.

[cbg]

If you are asking how to get her to come live with you with no possible legal repercussions, the answer is, you can't.

Call CPS. Now.