A Minor's Options When Facing Placement With an Abusive Parent

Attorney Answer

You do not have to wait for the adults in your family to act. Connecticut law lets you report abuse yourself, and if a court decides where you live, the law requires it to hear what you want.

Two separate things are going on: who your legal guardian is, and whether you are safe. The second one you can start today, without anyone's permission.

Reporting the abuse. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 17a-103(a), titled "Reports by others," provides that any person having reasonable cause to suspect or believe that a child under eighteen "is in danger of being abused, or has been abused or neglected" may cause "a written, oral or electronic report to be made to the Commissioner of Children and Families or the commissioner's designee or a law enforcement agency." "Any other person" includes you. No adult has to sign off on it.

What a report can lead to. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46b-129 allows the Commissioner of Children and Families, among other listed officials and agencies, to file a petition in the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters alleging that a child is neglected, uncared for or abused, and it provides the mechanism for an order of temporary custody. Be clear about who does what: you cannot file that petition yourself. The listed petitioners are officials and agencies. Your route is the report, and the report is what puts DCF in a position to act.

Your voice if a court decides. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46b-56(c) says that in making or modifying a custody order "the court shall consider the best interests of the child, and in doing so, may consider, but shall not be limited to" seventeen factors. Among them are the physical and emotional safety of the child; "any relevant and material information obtained from the child, including the informed preferences of the child"; the mental and physical health of all individuals involved; and whether the child or a sibling has been abused or neglected. Here is the honest limit: the same subsection says the court "is not required to assign any weight to any of the factors that it considers, but shall articulate the basis for its decision." Your preference has to be heard. It does not by itself decide.

What you can do

1. If you are in immediate danger right now, call 911. 2. Report the abuse to the DCF Careline at 1-[phone withheld], which takes calls 24 hours a day, or to your local police department. Describe specific incidents, not just conclusions. 3. Write down what has happened — dates, what was said or done, who else saw it, any photos or messages. Keep it somewhere your family cannot reach, such as a school email account. 4. Tell an adult at school — a counselor, teacher, nurse or coach. School staff are required by law to report suspected abuse, so telling one of them starts the process even if you cannot make the call yourself. 5. If there is already a court case about where you live, ask the clerk or the judge how to have a lawyer or guardian ad litem appointed for you so someone in the courtroom speaks for you and not for the adults. 6. If your grandmother is your court-appointed guardian, any change to that arrangement goes back through the court that made it. It is not something the adults can simply agree to between themselves.