Does my parent still have to support me if I'm determined to be homeless?

[oblique1234]

Jurisdiction

Florida

Okay so first I'd just like to say I had no idea exactly how to word this question but basically I'm wondering if my only surviving legal parent is still obligated to support me (ie. Clothes, food, health care) now that I've been identified by my counties homeless liaison as "in transition".
Last fall my mother passed away, whom I was living with, and since then I've been staying with friends. I'm 17 and attend an alternative school and one of my teachers mentioned something about my dad having the legal obligation to support me (child support? ). I was wondering if that is indeed the case, and if so, as how I would go about 'getting' said support.
Also, please refrain from saying anything to the effect of "go home". I was subjected to years of childhood sexual abuse by a someone currently living in his home, among other things, causing that not to be a feasible option.

 

[army judge]

Okay so first I'd just like to say I had no idea exactly how to word this question but basically I'm wondering if my only surviving legal parent is still obligated to support me (ie. Clothes, food, health care) now that I've been identified by my counties homeless liaison as "in transition".
Last fall my mother passed away, whom I was living with, and since then I've been staying with friends. I'm 17 and attend an alternative school and one of my teachers mentioned something about my dad having the legal obligation to support me (child support? ). I was wondering if that is indeed the case, and if so, as how I would go about 'getting' said support.
Also, please refrain from saying anything to the effect of "go home". I was subjected to years of childhood sexual abuse by a someone currently living in his home, among other things, causing that not to be a feasible option.

First of all, please accept my condolences upon the loss of your mother.
Secondly, its very sad to hear that at age 17, you are homeless.


Thirdly, your teacher may have meant well, but nothing could be farther from the truth than giving you the false expectation that your father must pay you child support.

There is no state in the nation where a parent is required to pay direct child support to his or her offspring.

However, if an aunt, uncle, grandparent were to take you in, one of those adult relatives coud TRY to collect child support on your behalf.

Sadly, by the time that MIGHT happen, you'd probably be an adult and the matter would become moot.

Another unfortunate thing about your situation is that you are in the limbo period between teenage years and adulthood.

For example, you commit a crime, you'd be treated the same as an adult.

Yet, you can't legally contract, buy a pack of cigarettes, or travel outside the USA alone, serve on a jury (although you could be tried by one), or VOTE!!!!

Last, but even more troubling is you can't live with your father because you were sexually violated as a child.

My God, son, I am at a loss for words.

There are agencies such as "Communities in Schools", the Red Cross, Salvation Army, churches, mosques, or synagogues who might be bale to help you.

If you have other close relatives: adult siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, or cousins; maybe they can help you????

 

[oblique1234]

First of all, please accept my condolences upon the loss of your mother.
Secondly, its very sad to hear that at age 17, you are homeless.


Thirdly, your teacher may have meant well, but nothing could be farther from the truth than giving you the false expectation that your father must pay you child support.

There is no state in the nation where a parent is required to pay direct child support to his or her offspring.

However, if an aunt, uncle, grandparent were to take you in, one of those adult relatives coud TRY to collect child support on your behalf.

Sadly, by the time that MIGHT happen, you'd probably be an adult and the matter would become moot.

Another unfortunate thing about your situation is that you are in the limbo period between teenage years and adulthood.

For example, you commit a crime, you'd be treated the same as an adult.

Yet, you can't legally contract, buy a pack of cigarettes, or travel outside the USA alone, serve on a jury (although you could be tried by one), or VOTE!!!!

Last, but even more troubling is you can't live with your father because you were sexually violated as a child.

My God, son, I am at a loss for words.

There are agencies such as "Communities in Schools", the Red Cross, Salvation Army, churches, mosques, or synagogues who might be bale to help you.

If you have other close relatives: adult siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, or cousins; maybe they can help you????

Thank you so much for the response. And yeah I had the impression that him paying child support directly to me sounded way too far fetched, but I figured I might as well look into it.

And as far as another family member helping; I live about 200 miles away from the closest family member and even on the off chance that they did want to help I wouldn't be able to stay in the alternative program for the school that I'm in and graduating on time is very very very important to me. So even if they could help I still feel like that's not an option.

Anyways, I'll just keep doing what I've been doing for the 10 months and hopefully be able to get some assistance when I can make legal decisions for myself. Thanks again though

 

[army judge]

Thank you so much for the response. And yeah I had the impression that him paying child support directly to me sounded way too far fetched, but I figured I might as well look into it.

And as far as another family member helping; I live about 200 miles away from the closest family member and even on the off chance that they did want to help I wouldn't be able to stay in the alternative program for the school that I'm in and graduating on time is very very very important to me. So even if they could help I still feel like that's not an option.

Anyways, I'll just keep doing what I've been doing for the 10 months and hopefully be able to get some assistance when I can make legal decisions for myself. Thanks again though

My wife teaches at a high school.
She occasionally mentions kids like you, kids parents and life have just abandoned.
We have a couple programs in our county that will actually provide studio or 1 bedroom furnished apartments, all utilities included for about fifty bucks a month.

Ask your school counselors if such programs exist in your area.

What do you plan to do after high school?
When will you graduate?

If you're going to college, why not forget high school and just start at a community college? You don't need SAT, ACT, or a high school diploma or GED to matriculate.

 

[CdwJava]

Check with your county, or school district, and ask them about a resource for the McKinney-Vento Act. This is a federal law and mandates funding for programs to assist homeless or displaced youth. How it might be implemented in Florida, I cannot say, but, a call to your county's Office of Education, your school district, or even social services should be able to find that info for you.

I teach at a high school in CA (in addition to my cop work) and have worked with a number of students in the program. Here, it is run out of the County Office of Education, with partial funding from our social services agency. Yours may be different.

However, this may not preclude your father from being legally required to step in and provide for you if he is not otherwise prohibited from doing so. Sadly, unless a court has removed his ability to act as your legal guardian, you may be required to live where he approves. And if whatever incident occurred was never reported to the police and/or CPS, it may be a legal non-issue as far as it relates to your residing with dad. If that is the case, you may have to try and gain his compliance with whatever living situation you choose to place yourself in.

 

[KatDini]

My wife teaches at a high school.
She occasionally mentions kids like you, kids parents and life have just abandoned.
We have a couple programs in our county that will actually provide studio or 1 bedroom furnished apartments, all utilities included for about fifty bucks a month.

Ask your school counselors if such programs exist in your area.

What do you plan to do after high school?
When will you graduate?

If you're going to college, why not forget high school and just start at a community college? You don't need SAT, ACT, or a high school diploma or GED to matriculate.

Community colleges in my state require a high school diploma/GED and an ACT over 16 to enroll.

 

[oblique1234]

My wife teaches at a high school.
She occasionally mentions kids like you, kids parents and life have just abandoned.
We have a couple programs in our county that will actually provide studio or 1 bedroom furnished apartments, all utilities included for about fifty bucks a month.

Ask your school counselors if such programs exist in your area.

What do you plan to do after high school?
When will you graduate?

If you're going to college, why not forget high school and just start at a community college? You don't need SAT, ACT, or a high school diploma or GED to matriculate.

Where I'm at you need your ged. If you're under 18 you need a ged waiver. Parent has to sign the waiver. Anyways, I only have a month or two left until I finish my classes so I might as well. And if I talk to my guidance councillor I'm like terrified of them getting cps involved and them poking around at an already very fragile living situation. From my experience they have no idea how to deal with issues like this. Last time I talked to my guidance councillor about my situation (before my mom died) they came to where I was staying with two cops and removed ALL the kids from the house and took me back to my moms. She abused pills so I was only there for about a week before I was in an even worse situation than before.

I tried to find drop in centers and stuff but most of the programs in my community is reserved for lgbt youth. And I feel like the only way to get access to programs that would be a good fit is to talk to the guidance councillor but then they might get cps to do an investigation or a home study or something of my friend house and everything will fall apart again so I just feel like super trapped.