Virginia Emancipation Questions

[ki_chan]

I have a friend who is currently 17, and a senior in High School. Her parents have decided they're moving within the next two weeks, and shes two months from completing her last year, and she just wants to finish it off here. She has plenty of places she could stay, her parents said they can't leave her here while shes still technically under-age, and they cannot just give custody to someone else.
She just wants to make it so she can stay here while shes still 17 (she turns 18 in July).

Can someone correct this please? We're not sure how the laws work here.

[aaron]

Virginia's emancipation law provides:

Any minor who has reached his sixteenth birthday and is residing in this Commonwealth, or any parent or guardian of such minor, may petition the juvenile and domestic relations district court for the county or city in which either the minor or his parents or guardian resides for a determination that the minor named in the petition be emancipated. The petition shall contain, in addition to the information required by § 16.1-262, the gender of the minor and, if the petitioner is not the minor, the name of the petitioner and the relationship of the petitioner to the minor.

Typically the court will want to know where you will be living, how you will support yourself independently, and that you are sufficiently mature and capable of managing your own personal, social and financial affairs.