Why are there so many facilities for troubled teens in certain states and almost none in others?
Why are there so few institutions that can require students to remain enrolled in their programs by parental mandate…
The legal age is also known as the age of legal majority. This is the age at which a person gains the legal status of an adult, enabling one to gain independence from parents. The legal age is set by state law and can differ from state to state. However, almost all states set the base legal age as 18 years old for most applications. There are three exceptions: Nebraska and Alabama (19), with Mississippi (21
Until about 10 years ago, parents were able to enroll their children in programs with obligatory boarding arrangements to better protect and prepare their minor child for a successful future. Such decisions were undoubtedly made under very stressful situations. Parental rights and choice were regarded above that of the defiant teen.
Prompted by Federal mandate, several years ago about 46 states in the USA changed their laws to allow age of majority having to do with adolescent treatment to decrease from the traditional age 18 to as low as 12-14 years of age.
This is and was an egregious overstep by the federal government concerning freedom of parental rights in dealing with their children. Therefore, about four of the states refused these policy changes arguing that they would have an adverse affect on the parents' ability to direct the lives of their minor children.
States such as Utah, Idaho and others, have legally maintained the age of majority for a student to continue to be at age 18. This logical move was made with an understanding that the parents know best what the needs of their child are better than the government.
Incidentally, Costa Rica among other nations, also maintains that parents are the most qualified to know what is best for their child. It maintains the age of majority of its students, or students that are there under their perview, to also be age 18 majority.
It follows that when these 46 states changed their law, inappropriately as we argue, and took away these historically held parental rights from their families, the institutions that used to operate in those states closed. They could not afford to stay open because they could not keep the child at the facilities. Essentially, the child could sign themselves in and out of the school at will.
One such example can be found in the state of Texas. Texas used to have close to 40 programs across this great state. Many other states had one or two programs at least. Now they basically have none that will accept students age 14 and up. There is no longer a legal environment for them to fiscally exist anymore.
If you are in one of the states where the age of majority is now 12-14, once you sign our school application/contract you are then legally agreeing to have your student in the school under the laws of a state that the school resides. This gives you the legal right have your child escorted from your home setting and transported directly to our sites as was once the historical case in all states.
Again, we operate our boarding programs in the states where they can legally operate... where you can place the child and not worry about a him or her just walking away. The child can be retained in that school setting, even if they don’t want to be there