Emancipation...16 yr old girl...South Carolina...?
my best friend is 16 and has been wanting to get out of her house for in the region of 2 years ago when her mom started becoming...(seemingly) mentally unstable. her parents kicked her out and she is now living with her grandmother. she no longer has a room contained by her parents house (they made it into a game room). what can she do as far as the laws in south carolina budge? she wants to get out but is unsure about fostering b/c she doesn't want to be moved too far away from where on earth she is living now. is there anything she can do if she got fostered to ensure she wouldn't be moved too far away. and i can relate you now that her parents aren't going to make the petition to emancipate her. they're too controlling. soooo if you have any suggestions please do engineer them.
I agree with Jim... she is not there, living with her grandma, merely 2 years before she can legally on her own. And if her grandma is loving and caring, she should focus on that instead. The together point of emancipation is to be legally separate from ones parents. It's almost always the child who brings the petition into court and asks for it. Would she be in place and willing to be a legal adult? Would she know how to support herself?
Another thing to think about: sometimes contained by some states, fostering a child is usually offered to family members first...so her grandmother might be able to save her and get a check from the state to help pay for her requirements and the extra costs of having a child in the home, if staying with grandma is an pick. If it's more stable and would keep the family less disfunctional, she might want to sway in for a couple of years and do that.
Either way, you should have her lately go in and speak with a social worker or someone at child protective services. They will know how to help her out and answer questions that would be specific to her case. If she doesn't want to do that, a academy guidance counselor should also know people she can call.
Your friend needs a legal representative ASAP. Her parents throwing her out at 16 is a pretty good case for emancipation. Especially is she have a job and is not a delinquent. They move foster kids all over the state, so if emancipation is not a n opportunity, she will probably be better off just to stay with her grandmother. If she is living next to her grandmother, I would not worry about it when she turns 18 she will be a legal full-size anyway.
Here are the laws on emancipation. Scroll down to South Carolina.
http://www.jlc.org/factsheets/emancipati...
