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Listed here are some selected laws on missing persons and runaways. Additional resources are provided at the bottom of the page.
Family Code 51.02. Definitions
(2) "Child" means a person who is:
(A) ten years of age or older and under 17 years of age; or
(B) seventeen years of age or older and under 18 years of age who is alleged or found to have engaged in delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision as a
result of acts committed before becoming 17 years of age.
(3) "Custodian" means the adult with whom the child resides.
(4) "Guardian" means the person who, under court order, is the guardian of the person of the child or the public or private agency with whom the child has been placed by a court.
Family Code 101.003. Child or Minor; Adult
(a) "Child" or "minor" means a person under 18 years of age who is not and has not been
married or who has not had the disabilities of minority removed for general purposes.
(b) In the context of child support, "child" includes a person over 18 years of age for
whom a person may be obligated to pay child support.
(c) "Adult" means a person who is not a child.
Family Code 262.007. Possession and Delivery of Missing Child
(a) A law enforcement officer who, during a criminal investigation relating to a child's
custody, discovers that a child is a missing child and believes that a person may flee with or conceal the child shall take possession of the child and provide for the delivery of the
child as provided by Subsection (b).
(b) An officer who takes possession of a child under Subsection (a) shall deliver or arrange for the delivery of the child to a person entitled to possession of the child.
(c) If a person entitled to possession of the child is not immediately available to take possession of the child, the law enforcement officer shall deliver the child to the
Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. Until a person entitled to possession of the child takes possession of the child, the department may, without a court order,
retain possession of the child not longer than five days after the date the child is delivered to the department. While the department retains possession of a child under
this subsection, the department may place the child in foster home care. If a parent or other person entitled to possession of the child does not take possession of the child
before the sixth day after the date the child is delivered to the department, the department shall proceed under this chapter as if the law enforcement officer took possession of the child under Section 262.104.
Family Code 151.001. Rights and Duties of Parent
(a) A parent of a child has the following rights and duties:
(1) the right to have physical possession, to direct the moral and religious training, and to
establish the residence of the child;
(2) the duty of care, control, protection, and reasonable discipline of the child;
(3) the duty to support the child, including providing the child with clothing, food,
shelter, medical and dental care, and education;
(4) the duty, except when a guardian of the child's estate has been appointed, to manage
the estate of the child, including the right as an agent of the child to act in relation to the child's estate if the child's action is required by a state, the United States, or a foreign government;
(5) except as provided by Section 264.0111, the right to the services and earnings of the child;
(6) the right to consent to the child's marriage, enlistment in the armed forces of the
United States, medical and dental care, and psychiatric, psychological, and surgical treatment;
(7) the right to represent the child in legal action and to make other decisions of
substantial legal significance concerning the child;
(8) the right to receive and give receipt for payments for the support of the child and to hold or disburse funds for the benefit of the child;
(9) the right to inherit from and through the child;
(10) the right to make decisions concerning the child's education; and
(11) any other right or duty existing between a parent and child by virtue of law.
(b) The duty of a parent to support his or her child exists while the child is an unemancipated minor and continues as long as the child is fully enrolled in an accredited
secondary school in a program leading toward a high school diploma until the end of the school year in which the child graduates.
(c) A parent who fails to discharge the duty of support is liable to a person who provides necessaries to those to whom support is owed.
(d) The rights and duties of a parent are subject to:
(1) a court order affecting the rights and duties;
(2) an affidavit of relinquishment of parental rights; and
(3) an affidavit by the parent designating another person or agency to act as managing conservator.
Code of Criminal Procedure 63.001. Definitions
(1) "Child" means a person under 18 years of age.
(2) "Missing person" means a person 18 years old or older whose disappearance is
possibly not voluntary.
(3) "Missing child" means a child whose whereabouts are unknown to the child's legal custodian, the circumstances of whose absence indicate that:
(A) the child did not voluntarily leave the care and control of the custodian, and the taking of the child was not authorized by law;
(B) the child voluntarily left the care and control of his legal custodian without the custodian's consent and without intent to return; or
(C) the child was taken or retained in violation of the terms of a court order for possession of or access to the child.
(4) "Missing child" or "missing person" also includes a person of any age who is missing and:
(A) is under proven physical or mental disability or is senile, and because of one or more
of these conditions is subject to immediate danger or is a danger to others;
(B) is in the company of another person or is in a situation the circumstances of which
indicate that the missing child's or missing person's safety is in doubt; or
(C) is unemancipated as defined by the law of this state.
(5) "Missing child or missing person report" or "report" means information that is:
(A) given to a law enforcement agency on a form used for sending information to the
national crime information center; and
(B) about a child or missing person whose whereabouts are unknown to the reporter and who is alleged in the form by the reporter to be missing.
(6) "Legal custodian of a child" means a parent of a child if no managing conservator or guardian of the person of the child has been appointed, the managing conservator of a
child or a guardian of a child if a managing conservator or guardian has been appointed for the child, a possessory conservator of a child if the child is absent from the
possessory conservator of the child at a time when the possessory conservator is entitled to possession of the child and the child is not believed to be with the managing
conservator, or any other person who has assumed temporary care and control of a child if at the time of disappearance the child was not living with his parent, guardian,
managing conservator, or possessory conservator.
Code of Criminal Procedure 63.009. Law Enforcement Requirements
(a) Local law enforcement agencies, on receiving a report of a missing child or a missing person, shall:
(1) if the subject of the report is a child and the well-being of the child is in danger or if the subject of the report is a person who is known by the agency to have or is reported
to have chronic dementia, including Alzheimer's dementia, whether caused by illness, brain defect, or brain injury, immediately start an investigation in order to determine the
present location of the child or person;
(2) if the subject of the report is a child or person other than a child or person described
by Subdivision (1), start an investigation with due diligence in order to determine the present location of the child or person;
(3) immediately enter the name of the child or person into the clearinghouse, the national crime information center missing person file if the child or person meets the center's
criteria, and the Alzheimer's Association Safe Return crisis number, if applicable, with all available identifying features such as dental records, fingerprints, other physical
characteristics, and a description of the clothing worn when last seen, and all available information describing any person reasonably believed to have taken or retained the missing child or missing person; and
(4) inform the person who filed the report of the missing child or missing person that the information will be entered into the clearinghouse, the national crime information center
missing person file, and the Alzheimer's Association Safe Return crisis number, if applicable.
(b) Information not immediately available shall be obtained by the agency and entered
into the clearinghouse and the national crime information center file as a supplement to the original entry as soon as possible.
(c) All Texas law enforcement agencies are required to enter information about all
unidentified bodies into the clearinghouse and the national crime information center unidentified person file. A law enforcement agency shall, not later than the 10th working
day after the date the death is reported to the agency, enter all available identifying features of the unidentified body (fingerprints, dental records, any unusual physical
characteristics, and a description of the clothing found on the body) into the clearinghouse and the national crime information center file. If an information entry into
the national crime information center file results in an automatic entry of the information into the clearinghouse, the law enforcement agency is not required to make a direct entry
of that information into the clearinghouse.
(d) If a local law enforcement agency investigating a report of a missing child or missing
person obtains a warrant for the arrest of a person for taking or retaining the missing child or missing person, the local law enforcement agency shall immediately enter the
name and other descriptive information of the person into the national crime information center wanted person file if the person meets the center's criteria. The local law
enforcement agency shall also enter all available identifying features, including dental records, fingerprints, and other physical characteristics of the missing child or missing
person. The information shall be cross-referenced with the information in the national crime information center missing person file.
(e) A local law enforcement agency that has access to the national crime information center database shall cooperate with other law enforcement agencies in entering or
retrieving information from the national crime information center database.
(f) Immediately after the return of a missing child or missing person or the identification
of an unidentified body, the local law enforcement agency having jurisdiction of the investigation shall cancel the entry in the national crime information center database.
(g) On determining the location of a child under Subsection (a)(1) or (2), other than a child who is subject to the continuing jurisdiction of a district court, an officer shall take
possession of the child and shall deliver or arrange for the delivery of the child to a person entitled to possession of the child. If the person entitled to possession of the
child is not immediately available, the law enforcement officer shall deliver the child to the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services.
Additional information can be found at the following links:
Texas Missing Child Laws
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Texas Missing Persons Clearinghouse Online Bulletin
Focus Adolescent Services
Texas Runaway Hotline
Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (PRS)
Crisis Resources
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