The Runaway Youth Act authorized the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to make grants to local nonprofit, private agencies to develop local facilities that would deal primarily with the immediate needs of runaway youth. The Youth Development Bureau of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) administers this National Runaway Youth Program. The services funded are in three general categories: multiservice youth agencies, youth and family services, and runaway youth shelters. The Youth Development Bureau, in its efforts to increase organizational development and the provision of services by runaway programs, has developed a series of program performance standards. They deal with program accessibility and services, outreach, temporary shelter, the intake process, family counseling, service linkages, aftercare, case disposition, staffing and staff development, youth participation, youth files, project planning and development, and advocacy. Program evaluations have found them to be diverse but generally effective in meeting the variety of needs of runaway youth. Persistent legal issues bearing upon the implementation of runaway programs are compulsory education laws; child labor laws; the need for parental consent for medical services; and harboring, contributing to the delinquency of, or interfering with a minor. Data are provided from a 1975 evaluation of runaway programs. Notes accompany each chapter.