Is It Difficult for a 16 Year Old to Become Emancipated

My question involves juvenile law in the State of: California.

My son's friend's father was killed in a motorcycle accident on Labor day and his mother lost parental rights long ago (no contact since he was 4). His Aunt wants to become his legal guardian but he wants to stay in the same high school until he graduates (he is a Jr.) where he has a support system. Since his fathers death he has been staying with the family of his girlfriend. They are willing to have him live there until he graduates.

What are the options in this case? Would he be able to get emancipated in this circumstance and stay where he is as stable as he can be? Mentally I think moving him would do more damage than not.

Thank you for your input.

Unless he has a means of making enough money to support himself without the help of his girlfriend's family or anybody else, it will be next door to impossible for him to be emancipated.

http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/e...ion_manual.pdf

It is very unlikely that he will be permitted to stay with the family of a girlfriend! That's a recipe for disaster!

If he is without a legal guardian, I suspect that the state should be stepping in to take temporary custody and make arrangements for temporary guardianship. Now, if the aunt gets custody and is okay with him staying where he is, well, that can happen. But, a minor living in the home with his (presumably) minor girlfriend is a recipe for disaster since the age of consent in CA is 18! A pregnancy can result in jail/juvenile hall time, parents can be charged for permitting it, and a host of bad things can happen. And NO ONE can say with a straight face that if he is living in the home of his girlfriend that hanky-panky is not or will not occur!

Social services (CPS) will have the say in this matter so it might be beneficial for his family to get ahead of the ball and start working with county services now rather than wait for him to get scooped up and taken away.