Because ours is an ever changing business, we have added this page to the website to help keep our members informed of legal changes being made in Missouri. If you know of a legal update relating to juvenile work, please let us know so we can post it for the membership.
Senate Bill 1550
SB 1550 is a bill passed through legislation this past year and signed by the governor. SB 1550 will change the age of jurisdiction from 17 to 18 for status offenders ONLY. Basically, it will give parents more power in the home because they now can require their children to remain in the home till age 18. They can report children as runaways, beyond parental control, or if their behaviors are injurious to themselves, they can get them help. This will not help with truancy. Children can still quit school at 16 without parent's permission. This will not apply to delinquent offenses. At age 17, it will be possible for a child to be bailed out of "adult" jail for stealing and then brought to a youth detention center as a runaway.
There is a lot of controversy and confusion with this bill due to the added cost to the Juvenile Offices, so there has been a provision placed in this bill that says it will NOT become effective until there is adequate state funding in place to allow for the hiring of additional juvenile officers. The law does provide specific provisions about how much funding must be in place before it becomes an effective law. Class 1 counties will not receive additional funding from the State to assist with the hiring of the new juvenile officers. Although Class 1 counties will not receive any funding, they are reporting they will not put this law into effect until Class 2 & 3 counties have their funding.
As progress and updates are released we will let you know via this website. We encourage you to contact your local Juvenile Office and learn how they will be making this transition. Each County will have their own policy and procedures in how they will want to handle these 17 year old status offenders.
