Q: Hello i wanted to know, if my 18 yr old niece still in high school can legally leave her father's house and move with me
So my niece has been going through it at her father's house as far as mental abuse, body shaming from her father's immediate family, verbal threats and controlling. She has to do everything in the home for everyone. It has started messing with her ability to focus on school. She has developed anxiety from the situation to the point she not sleeping and not feeling good, feeling sick to her stomach. And has cried multiple times. What is your legal advise and can you answer my question. Also I'm in the jurisdiction of the school zone. So she can still go to the same school. Thank you.
A:
The first question is where is her mother? Presuming that her mother is not in the picture before you commit to taking your niece into your home, you need to have a heart to heart with her about the ground rules and your expectations of what you expect her to do while living in your home. I would probably also do it in writing, with her signing off on it so that there will be no miscommunications or misunderstandings between you and she later. My concern is that she comes to live with you and then you find that what she said about the fighting and conflict was not 100% accurate and then you are stuck with her living in your house in a very different setting than you anticipated.
Presuming that you and she are on the same page about expectations, then my suggestion is that you sit down with her father to talk about her coming to live with you for a while to give her a change. If you do not think that he will handle it well, then arrange to move her out / in with you and then talk with her dad. Since she is 18 years old, he cannot stop her but you will then need to discuss guardianship with her and the school so that you are recognized as her parental figure for the balance of her high school term.
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