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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Posts
    1

    Default Can a Parent Make a 16-Year-Old Runaway Return Home

    My question involves juvenile law in the State of: New York
    If my 16 year old daughter leaves the house without permission can i legally do anything to make her return home?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: 16 Year Old Claims There is Nothing I Can Do if She Leaves

    There sure is.

    You can call the police and report her as a runaway. If you know where she's going you can go and get her and bring her back. If she is staying with someone else, you can inform them that she does not have permission to stay there and tell them to send her home.

    She is a minor. You are the parent. Until she is 18 and not one minute early, she lives where YOU says she lives, not where she says.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
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    98,846

    Default Re: Can a Parent Make a 16-Year-Old Runaway Return Home

    In New York, although juvenile court jurisdiction (including status offense jurisdiction) continues until the minor's eighteenth birthday, delinquency jurisdiction ends when a child reaches the age of sixteen. Thus, while a juvenile court may be able to initiate a status offense action against a minor over the age of sixteen for such actions as running away, it has limited ability to impose a corrective measure. New York law also permits a minor who runs away from home to stay at a runaway shelter for up to 30 days without being forced to return home -- so there is a period where, if the minor in fact goes to a qualifying shelter, the parents won't be able to compel the minor to return home.

    You can check with the local police to see what assistance they are willing to give to parents who are dealing with older runaways -- if they say "We'll help you recover any child below the age of 18", you can tell your daughter what the police told you, end the discussion, and decline to re-engage on the issue if she again brings it up. Outside of the context of the 30-day rule for a runaway shelter, you would also have the right to collect your teen from wherever she is living and escort her home.

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