What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia
I have a 16 year old daughter; she will be 17 in November. Her father and I have joint legal & physical custody; we were doing alternating weeks. That schedule was followed for about 2 months and after that she has lived with me since age 2 and saw her dad primarily on weekends, vacations(note* we went back to court in 2008 and at that time it was added to the orders that in the event that we could not agree to decisions with regard to education, medical issues, etc. that mothers decision shall rule- nothing else changed).
Daughter went to visit dad over the summer and got a boyfriend in the county he lives in. She asked several times for me to allow her to move in with her dad and attend school there; I said no. About 3 weeks after school started she went to her dads for the weekend, when it came time to come home she refused and dad stood by her decision. The next day I thought he would drive her to school but instead I get a call from the school saying that my daughter & her dad are there trying to withdraw her, but they could not do so without my permission and asked if I gave it; I said no. About 10 minutes later the school calls back wanting to let me know that they had said that if I would not give permission for her to transfer schools then she would just completely quit/drop-out. The school said that because she was 16 she could legally quit and though she technically needed my permission to do so, that if I could not make her come to school(which would be hard for me to do since she is now staying with dad and he supported whatever decision she made regarding school), she would be automatically dropped after 10 days; he also said that they wouldn't come after me legally should she actually drop-out. The school said they felt I needed to know this when making my decision about her transferring. Of course, feeling between a rock & a hard place, not wanting her to quit school, I signed for her to transfer schools and she moved in with her dad(though she technically didn't move her things, only took a few clothes). This was about 4 or so weeks ago.
Forward to last Friday- I get a call from her new school. The attendance officer said he had been sending notes, phoning, trying to contact my daughters dad and her grandfather(dad basically lives with his father)unsuccessfully for awhile now because she is missing too much school(he said 13 days). Anyway someone finally answered the phone at her dads/grandfathers and he was told that dad is in jail/and they haven't seen my daughter in about 2 or so weeks and didn't know where she was(keep in mind I'm talking with my daughter almost daily and she tells me she is still living with dad and says nothing about dad being in jail for over a week so far). I called the jail and dad's bond was denied(his place was raided and he was charged with possession/distribution of schedule 1 or 2 drugs & something, I can't remember the exact wording, like using a cell phone to facilitate or organize a drug deal; this is not his first offense). So basically dad is in jail and daughter is out roaming free without any supervision. Currently my daughter is staying at her 15 year old boyfriends house.
Now that all this has happened she needs to come back home with me and go to school. However, she refuses. A social worker also called me Friday and said he was going to go out to the boyfriend's house and talk with her and if that didn't work the next step would probably be to contact the police department for assistance. She says shes going to school tomorrow so I guess the best thing to do is go up there, get her back home and put her back in school here. What do I do when she says no? Since shes turning 17 very soon will the authorities even want to get involved? Also, both the attendance officer and the social worker said this could lead to legal problems for me and my daughter(I don't know if he meant because of the school or because she refuses to come home). Please any help/advice is greatly appreciated
! I really need to know what steps I should, or what steps I can take here in this situation.
I have a 16 year old daughter; she will be 17 in November. Her father and I have joint legal & physical custody; we were doing alternating weeks. That schedule was followed for about 2 months and after that she has lived with me since age 2 and saw her dad primarily on weekends, vacations(note* we went back to court in 2008 and at that time it was added to the orders that in the event that we could not agree to decisions with regard to education, medical issues, etc. that mothers decision shall rule- nothing else changed).
Daughter went to visit dad over the summer and got a boyfriend in the county he lives in. She asked several times for me to allow her to move in with her dad and attend school there; I said no. About 3 weeks after school started she went to her dads for the weekend, when it came time to come home she refused and dad stood by her decision. The next day I thought he would drive her to school but instead I get a call from the school saying that my daughter & her dad are there trying to withdraw her, but they could not do so without my permission and asked if I gave it; I said no. About 10 minutes later the school calls back wanting to let me know that they had said that if I would not give permission for her to transfer schools then she would just completely quit/drop-out. The school said that because she was 16 she could legally quit and though she technically needed my permission to do so, that if I could not make her come to school(which would be hard for me to do since she is now staying with dad and he supported whatever decision she made regarding school), she would be automatically dropped after 10 days; he also said that they wouldn't come after me legally should she actually drop-out. The school said they felt I needed to know this when making my decision about her transferring. Of course, feeling between a rock & a hard place, not wanting her to quit school, I signed for her to transfer schools and she moved in with her dad(though she technically didn't move her things, only took a few clothes). This was about 4 or so weeks ago.
Forward to last Friday- I get a call from her new school. The attendance officer said he had been sending notes, phoning, trying to contact my daughters dad and her grandfather(dad basically lives with his father)unsuccessfully for awhile now because she is missing too much school(he said 13 days). Anyway someone finally answered the phone at her dads/grandfathers and he was told that dad is in jail/and they haven't seen my daughter in about 2 or so weeks and didn't know where she was(keep in mind I'm talking with my daughter almost daily and she tells me she is still living with dad and says nothing about dad being in jail for over a week so far). I called the jail and dad's bond was denied(his place was raided and he was charged with possession/distribution of schedule 1 or 2 drugs & something, I can't remember the exact wording, like using a cell phone to facilitate or organize a drug deal; this is not his first offense). So basically dad is in jail and daughter is out roaming free without any supervision. Currently my daughter is staying at her 15 year old boyfriends house.
Now that all this has happened she needs to come back home with me and go to school. However, she refuses. A social worker also called me Friday and said he was going to go out to the boyfriend's house and talk with her and if that didn't work the next step would probably be to contact the police department for assistance. She says shes going to school tomorrow so I guess the best thing to do is go up there, get her back home and put her back in school here. What do I do when she says no? Since shes turning 17 very soon will the authorities even want to get involved? Also, both the attendance officer and the social worker said this could lead to legal problems for me and my daughter(I don't know if he meant because of the school or because she refuses to come home). Please any help/advice is greatly appreciated
! I really need to know what steps I should, or what steps I can take here in this situation.
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