RUNAWAYS ARE CHILDREN or teenagers who leave home for at least one night without their parents' permission. Statistics show that, in the United States, approximately one in seven kids between the ages of ten and eighteen will run away from home, but determining exactly how many runaways there are is a difficult task. Though no exact numbers are known, social service organizations estimate about 1 million youths currently live on the streets. Approximately 2.8 million adolescents have reported running away at some point in their lives. Some runaways return home after a few days, while others stay on the run for several weeks or months, or never return at all.

According to the National Runaway Switchboard (NRS), there is no typical teen runaway, and no single reason why a runaway leaves home...