
Quoting
Mr. Knowitall
Although Texas juvenile courts don't have jurisdiction over a seventeen-year-old, so as to treat running away from home as a status offense, there is nothing in Texas law that would prevent a parent of a seventeen-year-old from dragging a runaway, kicking and screaming, back home.
The Texas statute governing harboring a runaway, Penal Code, Sec. 25.06 (which covers all minors under the age of 18), offers defenses to harboring a runaway that you know to be "absent from the child's home without the consent of the child's parent or guardian for a substantial length of time or without the intent to return" -- within 24 hours of learning that the minor is a runaway, reporting the location of the runaway minor to the person or agency from which a child escaped or, if that's not applicable, notifying a person at the child's home of the child's location, or making a report within that time frame to a law enforcement agency.