This year has been a rough one for former Teen Mom star Jenelle Evans' teenage son, Jace. After running away from home multiple times earlier this year, Jace was placed under the custody of grandma Barbara Evans. But now that he's taken off again, Jace was hospitalized and put under the care of Child Protective Services, or CPS, and it's hard to say what the future holds for the 14-year-old. Somehow, this situation just seems to be getting worse.
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Reports that Jace had run away again first surfaced over the weekend.
The Sun was the first to report that Jace had run away from Barbara's house and had been hospitalized, but at the time, the source close to the situation didn't have any details.
Now there's been an update, and it truly highlights just how dire the situation has become.
Jace was reportedly gone for at least 24 hours.
According to intel shared with TMZ, Jace took off from Barbara's house on Saturday and wasn't found until 11:45 p.m. Sunday.
After running away on multiple occasions while under Jenelle's care, in October Jace was hospitalized and placed under Barbara's custody. At the time, Jenelle's husband, David Eason, was charged with child abuse after Jace claimed that his stepfather got physical with him.
The latest situation unfolded after Jace got in trouble at school.
Reportedly, Jace was caught vaping at school, which led to Barbara taking away his phone as punishment — a phone that she had been advised against giving him by both Jenelle and CPS, per TMZ.
That really upset him, leading to his latest runaway attempt.
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Now the teen is in foster care.
After his latest runaway attempt, CPS reportedly took over custody of Jace, which means he'll be placed in a foster home, and at this point, it's not clear just how temporary a solution this will be.
The source said CPS workers dealing with the case are feeling "exasperated" by the situation and are concerned he'll eventually end up in a juvenile detention center if things continue to escalate.
Hopefully, there will be some resolution to this soon.
Jace has had a lot of ups and downs over the year that fans saw play out on Teen Mom 2, and after Jenelle regained custody of him last spring, things only seemed to get worse.
Here's hoping this was the last time Jace will run away and that CPS will be able to get him the help he needs.
