length: 723 words 2.1 double spaced pages in favor of emancipation for children imagine that you're a young teenager living with you mother. Because your mother did not prepare a will, the state requires you to live with your father. The only thing you could do to save your own life is to terminate your father's rights by becoming emancipated. Many people have heard or read about the situations of child celebrities such as jenna malone, drew barrymore, christina ricci, michelle williams and macauley culkin or child athletes like dominique moceanu, but few have heard of a more compelling situation as that of aaron kipnis.

Instead of punishing his stepfather, the state of california made the eleven year old a ward of the state. For the next five years, kipnis began a cycle of running away, getting caught, and living in temporary housing. It was not until he was sixteen that a parole officer recommended he pursue legal emancipation. Emancipation is a court process that gives a teen legal independence from his or her parents of guardians and is granted adult civil rights except those prescribed by the law emancipation.

Emancipated minors will not be automatically entitled to do certain things such as vote or legally drink alcoholic beverage. Though child abuse is one of the main reasons why children want to be emancipated, there are other reasons for children to want adult responsibilities. One of those reasons is children actors are required to work extremely long hours. In order to continue their work load and keep their high income, it is to their benefit to become emancipated. In other cases, there may not be abuse or high income that is a concern, it simply might be that the parent or guardian and the child can not handle being around each other. So instead of continuing constant battles, the child and parents agree that it would be the best for everyone to seek emancipation.

Sometimes the young person becomes emancipated lives with relatives who provide financial support emancipation. Louisiana's and puerto rico's legal systems rely on european continental law allow parents to give limited emancipation to their children with little involvement from the courts. Most states require the minor to be already successfully living independent or prove the maturity to live independently mycounsel.com. The age that a child can obtain emancipation varies throughout the united states. Although, in california the minor must be 14, in colorado the age is 15, in wyoming the age is 17, and in 7 other states there is no age restrictions.

For example, becoming lawfully married or joining the military automatically enable emancipation. However, emancipation through joining the military is limited by federal law because you must be 18 to enter the military based on federal regulations mycounsel.com. The emancipated minor would have the to retain his or her own wages, the right to sue for parental support if the parent forced the teen out. By allowing children to be emancipated children may begin to find their way out of abusive situations and lead happy, successful lives. 19 feb 2016 free example essay on emancipation: for months, jodie had waited in anticipation for new york state university to send their response as to whether or not she had gotten accepted into the college. Her goal was to become a famous movie director after she had gotten a degree in film production from nyu, which was located in one of the most happening cities in the country.

Her parents weren’t too fond of this idea, and looked down upon her decision to attend the school. They didn’t go to college, so they decided that they wouldn’t allow her to go either. Three months later, a large letter with the initials nyu admissions department which graced the smooth envelope addressed to jodie arrived in the mail.

Excitedly, she opened it up and read congratulations, you have been accepted! she jumped for joy, until her parents found out, and refused to let her travel 2 thousand miles to attend the university. Well, if you dont like my decisions, ill just move out! is what jodie screamed at the top of her voice while storming up the stairs to her room in tears. She then though, hey, why don’t i just leave anyway? it can’t be too hard to live on my own… quite often in the united states, teenagers have decided to do just that, and have gained the legal power to make their own financial and life decisions.

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But its not easy, and the process of becoming legally independent before youre 18 can be lengthy and difficult. Divorcing your parents, as some refer to it, doesnt happen just because youre tired of being yelled at, and it is not a process to be taken lightly. Becoming emancipated means that it is necessary to completely support yourself financially, and to also have the right to make decisions which would normally need parental consent. You must also meet one of the following conditions: you must be married, be in the u.s. Armed forces, must be living apart from your parents or guardian and be managing your own money, or the court must decide that emancipation is in the best interests of you, or your parents. If a parent can’t divorce their child, how can a child divorce their parent? normally, a parent has legal power over a minor until he or she reaches the age of 18.

Legal dependence is defined by a california law code 19 7 1 as remaining under the control of ones parents, who are entitled to the minors services and the proceeds of their labor. In other words, until youre 18, your parents legally have control over you and any money you may earn. On the contrary, there are options that can be undertaken to disregard those legalities. According to many laws in the united states, there are three ways that a parents rights can be given up: adoption, mistreatment of the child, or the marriage of the child.

In adoption parents can give up their rights or they can be taken away by the state, says ann deibel, a consultant with the office of adoption in the department of human resources dhr. A parent can give her child to dhr, a licensed adoption agency, or to another adult through the superior court. Parental power can also be lost because of neglect or abuse such as a child often being left home alone or in the neighborhood for long periods without supervision. Likewise, if the child is frequently hungry, dressed inadequately for the weather, absent from school frequently, bruised or has other marks of physical violence, withdrawn or overly aggressive, and not receiving needed medical attention deibel says although the department is responsible for trying to reunify the family, they can petition to terminate the parents rights in juvenile court. To most, it seems fair for a child to have a say as to whether or not he or she wants to leave from their household, but in instances like this, the state would take the liberty to remove the child right away. The third way a parents rights can be relinquished is through marriage of the teen. The georgia code for instance, states that parental power shall be lost by: consent to the marriage of the child, who thus assumes inconsistent responsibilities.

In other words, when teens get permission to marry, they become legally independent. Some states, such as florida make no legal provisions for teenagers who simply dont want to live at home anymore. What about all the teens who say, i cant wait to get out of this house!? what separates these cases from those in which emancipation is a logical next step such as the examples above? according to chief judge of the fulton county juvenile court, sanford jones, its very fact specific. There is no set qualification as to who can become emancipated i had one case with a young woman whod been living on her own, not knowing where her parents were, and that made sense for her. But ive had kids come in just saying, i dont like answering to my parents i want to get emancipated, and that doesnt mean as much.

A young person who is at least 14 years old may petition the superior court of the county in which he or she lives. The petitioner must state that she is willingly living apart from her parents with their permission and is supporting herself financially in a legal manner. The court will notify your parents or guardian and the district attorney or your probation officer if you are on probation. The court will then decide whether granting you emancipation is in your best interests.

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If the court declares you emancipated, your dmv identification will show that you are emancipated, so people can treat you as an adult when you do things like apply for a job or enroll in college. The court may later set aside your emancipation, if it finds that it didn’t know important facts when it granted it, or if you later cannot support yourself financially and become dependent upon public assistance. As for how many teenagers undertake these proceedings, jones says the cases are few and far between, i hear of maybe two or three a year, he says, so probably less than a dozen happen annually statewide.