If a teen runs away in Georgia, will authorities bring her back to Georgia?
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?
02/01/2009 |
Category: Minors |
State: Maryland |
#15118
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.