If a teen runs away in Georgia, will authorities bring her back to Georgia?
02/01/2009 - Minors - State: MD #15118
Full Question:
If a 16 year old is in the welfare system in Georgia, leaves the State of Georgia, and is considered a runaway, will Georgia law officials come after her and take her back to Georgia?
Answer:
A minor who is not emancipated may be returned to their home state by the authorities if they leave the person or entity having legal custody without consent.
The following is a Georgia statute:
49-5-8. (a) The Department of Human Resources is authorized and empowered,....
(a) The Department of Human Resources is authorized and empowered, through its own programs and the programs of county or district departments of family and children services, to establish, maintain, extend, and improve throughout the state, within the limits of funds appropriated therefor, programs that will provide:
(1) Preventive services as follows:
(A) Collecting and disseminating information about the problems of children and youths and providing consultative assistance to groups, public and private, interested in developing programs and services for the prevention, control, and treatment of dependency, deprivation, and delinquency among the children of this state; and
(B) Research and demonstration projects designed to add to the store of information about the social and emotional problems of children and youths and improve the methods for dealing with these problems;
(2) Child welfare services as follows:
(A) Casework services for children and youths and for mothers bearing children out of wedlock, whether living in their own homes or elsewhere, to help overcome problems that result in dependency, deprivation, or delinquency;
(B) Protective services that will investigate complaints of deprivation, abuse, or abandonment of children and youths by parents, guardians, custodians, or persons serving in loco parentis and, on the basis of the findings of such investigation, offer social services to such parents, guardians, custodians, or persons serving in loco parentis in relation to the problem or bring the situation to the attention of a law enforcement agency, an appropriate court, or another community agency;
(C) Supervising and providing required services and care involved in the interstate placement of children;
(D) Homemaker service, or payment of the cost of such service, when needed due to the absence or incapacity of the mother;
(E) Boarding care, or payment of maintenance costs, in foster family homes or in group-care facilities for children and youths who cannot be adequately cared for in their own homes;
(F) Boarding care or payment of maintenance costs for mothers bearing children out of wedlock prior to, during, and for a reasonable period after childbirth; and
(G) Day-care services for the care and protection of children whose parents are absent from the home or unable for other reasons to provide parental supervision;
(3) Services to courts, upon their request, as follows:
(A) Accepting for casework services and care all children and youths whose legal custody is vested in the department by the court;
(B) Providing shelter or custodial care for children prior to examination and study or pending court hearing;
(C) Making social studies and reports to the court with respect to children and youths as to whom petitions have been filed; and
(D) Providing casework services and care or payment of maintenance costs for children and youths who have run away from their home communities within this state, or from their home communities in this state to another state, or from their home communities in another state to this state; paying the costs of returning such runaway children and youths to their home communities; and providing such services, care, or costs for runaway children and youths as may be required under Chapter 3 of Title 39;
(4) Regional group-care facilities for the purpose of:
(A) Providing local authorities an alternative to placing any child in a common jail;
(B) Shelter care prior to examination and study or pending a hearing before juvenile court;
(C) Detention prior to examination and study or pending a hearing before juvenile court; and
(D) Study and diagnosis pending determination of treatment or a hearing before juvenile court;
(5) Facilities designed to afford specialized and diversified programs, such as forestry camps, ranches, and group residences, for the care, treatment, and training of children and youths of different ages and different emotional, mental, and physical conditions;
(6) Regulation of child-placing agencies, child-caring institutions, and maternity homes by:
(A) Establishing rules and regulations for and providing consultation on such rules and regulations for all such agencies, institutions, and homes; and
(B) Licensing and inspecting periodically all such agencies, institutions, and homes to ensure their adherence to established standards as prescribed by the department;
(7) Adoption services, as follows:
(A) Supervising the work of all child-placing agencies when funds are made available;
(B) Providing services to parents desiring to surrender children for adoption as provided for in adoption statutes;
(C) Providing care or payment of maintenance costs for mothers bearing children out of wedlock and children being considered for adoption;
(D) Inquiring into the character and reputation of persons making application for the adoption of children;
(E) Placing children for adoption;
(F) Providing financial assistance after the consummation of a legal adoption to families adopting children who would otherwise remain in foster care at state expense. Financial assistance may only be granted for hard-to-place children with physical, mental, or emotional disabilities or with other problems for whom it is difficult to find a permanent home. Financial assistance may not exceed 100 percent of the amount paid for boarding such child and for special services such as medical care not available through insurance or public facilities. Such supplements shall only be available to families who could not provide for the child adequately without continued financial assistance. The department may review the supplements paid at any time but shall review them at least annually to determine the need for continued assistance;
(G) Providing payment to a licensed child-placing agency which places a child with special needs who is under the jurisdiction of the department for adoption. Payment may not exceed $5,000.00 for each such adoption arranged by an agency. The board shall define the special needs child. One-half of such payment shall be made at the time of placement and the remaining amount shall be paid when the adoption is finalized. If the adoption disrupts prior to finalization, the state shall be reimbursed by the child-placing agency in an amount calculated on a prorated basis based on length of time the child was in the home and the services provided; and
(H) Providing payment to an agency which recruits, educates, or trains potential adoptive or foster parents for preparation in anticipation of adopting or fostering a special needs child. The board shall define the special needs child and set the payment amount by rule and regulation. Upon appropriate documentation of these preplacement services in a timely manner, payments as set by the board shall be made upon enrollment of each potential adoptive or foster parent for such services;
Constitution of Georgia; and(8) Staff development and recruitment programs through in-service training and educational scholarships for personnel as may be necessary to assure efficient and effective administration of the services and care for children and youths authorized in this article. The department is authorized to disburse state funds to match federal funds in order to provide qualified employees with graduate or postgraduate educational scholarships in accordance with rules and regulations adopted by the board pursuant to Article VIII, Section VII, Paragraph I of the
(9) Miscellaneous services, such as providing all medical, hospital, psychiatric, surgical, or dental services or payment of the costs of such services as may be considered appropriate and necessary by competent medical authority to those children subject to the supervision and control of the department without securing prior consent of parents or legal guardians.
(b) The department is authorized to perform such other duties as may be required under related statutes.
(c)
(1) As used in paragraph (2) of this subsection, the term "state" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or any territory or possession of or territory or possession administered by the United States.
(2) The Department of Human Resources is authorized to enter into interstate compacts, on behalf of this state, with other states to provide for the reciprocal provision of adoption assistance services.
(3) The purpose of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection is to comply with the requirements of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (PL. 96-272) and Part E of Title IV of the Social Security Act and to assure that recipients of adoption assistance in Georgia who change their residences to other states receive adoption assistance services, other than adoption assistance payments, from their new states of residence.
The following is a portion of a GA statute:
ARTICLE IV. RETURN OF RUNAWAYS.
(a) That the parent, guardian, person or agency entitled to legal custody of a juvenile who has not been adjudged delinquent but who has run away without the consent of such parent, guardian, person or agency may petition the appropriate court in the demanding state for the issuance of a requisition for his return. The petition shall state the name and age of the juvenile, the name of the petitioner and the basis of entitlement to the juvenile's custody, the circumstances of his running away, his location if known at the time application is made, and such other facts as may tend to show that the juvenile who has run away is endangering his own welfare or the welfare of others and is not an emancipated minor. The petition shall be verified by affidavit, shall be executed in duplicate, and shall be accompanied by two certified copies of the document or documents on which the petitioner's entitlement to the juvenile's custody is based, such as birth certificates, letters of guardianship, or custody decrees. Such further affidavits and other documents as may be deemed proper may be submitted with such petition. The judge of the court to which this application is made may hold a hearing thereon to determine whether for the purposes of this compact the petitioner is entitled to the legal custody of the juvenile, whether or not it appears that the juvenile has in fact run away without consent, whether or not he is an emancipated minor, and whether or not it is in the best interest of the juvenile to compel his return to the state. If the judge determines, either with or without a hearing, that the juvenile should be returned, he shall present to the appropriate court or to the executive authority of the state where the juvenile is alleged to be located a written requisition for the return of such juvenile. Such requisition shall set forth the name and age of the juvenile, the determination of the court that the juvenile has run away without the consent of a parent, guardian, person or agency entitled to his legal custody, and that it is in the best interest and for the protection of such juvenile that he be returned. In the event that a proceeding for the adjudication of the juvenile as a delinquent, neglected or dependent juvenile is pending in the court at the time when such juvenile runs away, the court may issue a requisition for the return of such juvenile upon its own motion, regardless of the consent of the parent, guardian, person or agency entitled to legal custody, reciting therein the nature and circumstances of the pending proceeding. The requisition shall in every case be executed in duplicate and shall be signed by the judge. One copy of the requisition shall be filed with the compact administrator of the demanding state, there to remain on file subject to the provisions of law governing records of such court. Upon the receipt of a requisition demanding the return of a juvenile who has run away, the court or the executive authority to whom the requisition is addressed shall issue an order to any peace officer or other appropriate person directing him to take into custody and detain such juvenile. Such detention order must substantially recite the facts necessary to the validity of its issuance hereunder. No juvenile detained upon such order shall be delivered over to the officer whom the court demanding him shall have appointed to receive him, unless he shall first be taken forthwith before a judge of a court in the state, who shall inform him of the demand made for his return, and who may appoint counsel or guardian ad litem for him. If the judge of such court shall find that the requisition is in order, he shall deliver such juvenile over to the officer whom the court demanding him shall have appointed to receive him. The judge, however, may fix a reasonable time to be allowed for the purpose of testing the legality of the proceeding.
Upon reasonable information that a person is a juvenile who has run away from another state party to this compact without the consent of a parent, guardian, person or agency entitled to his legal custody, such juvenile may be taken into custody without a requisition and brought forthwith before a judge of the appropriate court who may appoint counsel or guardian ad litem for such juvenile and who shall determine after a hearing whether sufficient cause exists to hold the person, subject to the order of the court, for his own protection and welfare, for such a time not exceeding 90 days as will enable his return to another state party to this compact pursuant to a requisition for his return from a court of that state. If, at the time when a state seeks the return of a juvenile who has run away, there is pending in the state wherein he is found any criminal charge, or any proceeding to have him adjudicated a delinquent juvenile for an act committed in such state, or if he is suspected of having committed within such state a criminal offense or an act of juvenile delinquency, he shall not be returned without the consent of such state until discharged from the prosecution or other form of proceeding, imprisonment, detention or supervision for such offense or juvenile delinquency. The duly accredited officers of any state party to this compact, upon the establishment of their authority and the identity of the juvenile being returned, shall be permitted to transport such juvenile through any and all states party to this compact, without interference. Upon his return to the state from which he ran away, the juvenile shall be subject to such further proceedings as may be appropriate under the laws of that state.
(b) That the state to which a juvenile is returned under this Article shall be responsible for payment of the transportation costs of such return.
(c) That "juvenile" as used in this Article means any person who is a minor under the law of the state of residence of the parent, guardian, person or agency entitled to the legal custody of such minor.
Please see the information at the following links:
http://definitions.uslegal.com/r/runaway/
http://definitions.uslegal.com/m/minors-emancipation/
http://definitions.uslegal.com/p/protective-custody/
http://definitions.uslegal.com/p/protective-custody/
Please see the forms at the following link:
http://secure.uslegalforms.com/cgi-bin/forms/query.pl?S-T-B-B-emancip
02/01/2009 - Category: Minors - State: MD #15118
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