# TheAttorney General ofTexas June 5, 1978

Honorable RonJackson Executive Director Texas Youth Council 8900 Shoal Creek Blvd. Austin, Texas 78766 Opinion No. H- 1172 Re: Payment for return transportation to Texas of juvenile runaways. Dear Mr.Jackson: You ask whether an appropriation to

. .the Texas Youth Council may be used to pay travel expenses incurred under Article IV of the Interstate Compact on Juveniles, Family Code, chapter 25. The Executive Director of the Texas Youth Council serves ascompact administrator pursuant to section 25.05 of the Family Code. Article IVofthe Compact provides aprocedure for returning ajuvenile “who has not been adjudged delinquent but who has run away. ...” Family Code 525.02, art. IV(a). Article IV(b)makes the state to which the juvenile isreturned responsible for payment of transportation costs. Section 25.07 of the Family Code provides asfollows:

The compact administrator may make orarrange for the payments necessary to discharge the financial obligations imposed upon this state bythe compact or by a supplementary agreement made under the compact, subject tolegislative appropriations. You inform us that a nonadjudicated juvenile runaway was recently taken into custody by South Carolina authorities. The juvenile and her parents are residents ofTexas. The compact administrator generally requires the parents to pay the cost of the child’s return to Texas: however, inthis case they could not afford to. The South Carolina compact administrator paid the costs of transportation and then requested reimbursement for this expense pursuant to article IVof the Compact. You wish to know whether you may reimburse this travel expense from item 5dinthe appropriation to the Texas Youth Council.

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5. Community Services:

... .c. Residential Contract Services d. Non-residential Services e. Residential Services (Halfway House Operation)

.... General Appropriation Act, Acts 1977,65th Leg., ch. 872, at 2786. lnour opinion, the Compact provisions and section 25.07 provide preexisting law which would support an appropriation to pay the cost of returning a nonadjudicated runaway to Texas. See Tex. Const. art. 3, §44; Austin National Bank v. Sheppard, 71S.W.2d 242 (TX 1934); Attorney General Opinion WW-340 (1957). However, wedonot believe you are authorized to pay these transportation costs from the item for “[nlon-residential services.” Your budget request to the 65th Legislature stated that the expenditure for nonresidential services would aid the adjustment ofTexas Youth Council parolees. Budget Estimates - Fiscal Years 1978 and 1979 at 101. Like the items for residential services with which the appropriation groups the nonresidential services item, it appears tobe directed at persons already under the supervision ofTYC. See Attorney General Opinion H-822 - (1976). The TYC appropriation specifically authorizes you to pay the costs of deporting nonresident patients or students and returning Texas patients orstudents from other states. General Appropriations Act, Acts 1977,65th Leg., ch. 872, art. II,52e, at 2798. These provisions apply to persons under state supervision andnot tononadjudicated juveniles. See Attorney General Opinion H-521(1975). We find no indication that the Legislature intended the nonresidential services item tobe used to pay the cost ofreturning nonadjudicated runaways: all indications oflegislative intent are to the contrary. Since you have generally not paid such costs, we cannot draw any inferences from legislative acquiesence in administrative practice. Inour opinion, the proper course for South Carolina would be to seek reimbursement under the Miscellaneous Claims Act. See V.T.C.S. art. - 4351b. SUMMARY

The administrator of the Interstate Compact on Juveniles may not use the appropriation to the Texas Youth Council for nonresidential services to pay the cost of returning a nonadjudicated juvenile runaway to Texas.

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Attorney General ofTexas APPROVED: 

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C. ROBERT HEATH, Chairman Opinion Committee

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