What rights would we have as legal guardians?

[Sabi0118]

Jurisdiction

New York

My husband and I both reside in NYC. We are 22 with stable income and no kids yet. His sister(my sister in law) is 16 years old and is having a hard time in her home with her mom. Their living situation isn't the best and is causing a lot of stress amongst them all. To elaborate, they are living in a three bedroom home with 5 pets, the sister, 2 brothers (one is autistic), mom and grandmother. Plus 2 more her godmother and godmother's boyfriend. The autistic brother has progressively gotten violent and lashes out on her verbally and if not caught in time perhaps physically. Her mother blames her for everything and seems to only add to the stress of the situation. My sister in law has messaged me many times of how she feels depressed and feels like a guest in her own home. She barely eats or sleeps, isn't doing well in school and things seem to only get worse. At the moment she is staying with us (husband convinced their mom to let her stay with us) and has been much better these last couple of weeks. She is eating and sleeping better. Attending school and overall her mood is better. We are more than willing to have her stay with us almost permanently and provide all we can for her. However, would being her guardian be enough? At the moment we feel a bit helpless in case an emergency happens since their mom doesn't cooperate with us by giving us the medical insurance, permission to let her school call us and help out overall. She already has social workers visiting the home and an investigator since my sister in law missed many days of school. Is there anything we can do to help her? We really doubt the mom is going to let her stay with us long....

 

[army judge]

If a child is in danger, call the police.
There's just no way you'll wrest custody away from the 16 year old kids parent(s), no way.

 

[Sabi0118]

Yeah we are aware of that. It's just if we manage to gain guardian ship of her. Would we be able to have her stay with us for the time being? Cause the mother of course is upset calling my husband to bring her back cause her daughter doesn't wish to go home and my husband doesn't want to send her back either. I don't wish for things to get out of hand and before they do. I want us to gain guardian ship before things get really bad. We plan on calling the ACS investigator since he gave us his card and told us if anything to call him...

 

[army judge]

Yeah we are aware of that. It's just if we manage to gain guardian ship of her. Would we be able to have her stay with us for the time being? Cause the mother of course is upset calling my husband to bring her back cause her daughter doesn't wish to go home and my husband doesn't want to send her back either. I don't wish for things to get out of hand and before they do. I want us to gain guardian ship before things get really bad. We plan on calling the ACS investigator since he gave us his card and told us if anything to call him...

Until you're awarded guardianship, you must take the kid back to mommy if she demands it.

You could get in deep poo poo if you refuse.

Yes, contacting child services can be helpful to the child.

 

[cbg]

I'm sorry to say so, but unless Mom agrees, guardianship is unlikely in the extreme. It is rare indeed for guardianship to be taken from the parents and given to someone else without the parents' consent, barring situations where the parents have been deemed unfit by the state and removed by CPS.

 

[Sabi0118]

Indeed this is true. We are going to call the investigator on her case since he gave us his number and see how we shall proceed with all this. My husband knows his mother very well and I do trust him when he says that the home is unfit for her. But thank you. I already see that this might be difficult but at least making the effort will be better than making none at all.