Home Alone: How one extreme Illinois case led to overbroad laws about child supervision
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It also can signal to the child that his or her independence is disfavored. The highest age any other state stipulates for a child to be left alone is 12. A vague and restrictive state law could mean the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services comes knocking if parents leave their 13-year-old home alone. The bill that passed Wednesday by a vote of would lower the threshold, applying to children younger than 12. Click above for a printable Imporant Phone Numbers list to have at home for a caregiver or for your child doing self-care.
In the State of Illinois, any parent who leaves a child who is age 13 or younger home alone can be found guilty of neglect. However, once your child is 14 years old, you and the other parent can begin to leave your child home alone for reasonable limited periods of time. While it is possible that leaving a child home alone may seem like a bad thing, studies show that leaving a child home alone for limited periods of time can help them develop independence and can even give them confidence in their own abilities. However, as a parent, it is your responsibility to make sure that your child is developmentally ready to be able to stay home alone. Parents are legally responsible for their children's welfare until they reach adulthood. Under some circumstances a parent can be charged with neglect for leaving children unattended.
House unanimously passes bill to let Illinois parents leave teens home alone
The Illinois House unanimously passed a bill to eliminate the nation’s strictest standard for how old children must be to be left home alone, now set at age 14. The bill lets parents decide when children are responsible enough to briefly be on their own. Decisions about whether a child can be left unsupervised are generally best reserved for parents, who know their children better than anyone.
Present your children with a number of situations and have them act out their responses. Two things that children should not do when no one else is home are answer the door and have friends over. Coobes advises parents to have a short list of trusted people – a grandparent or an older sibling – that the child can let in the home when they are by themselves.
Illinois might allow parents to leave 12-year-olds home alone
At the least, the parents suffer a frightening and humiliating experience in having their parenting questioned and possibly even losing custody of their child temporarily. Child abandonment charges can be levied against parents if they leave children under 13 alone for at least 24 hours without supervision by someone over age 14. Two criminal laws specifically deal with kids who are left alone. One says that leaving a child “6 years of age or younger unattended in a motor vehicle for more than 10 minutes” may be child endangerment. Unattended means that the child is not with someone who is at least 14 years old.
The measure also clarifies that neglect does not include allowing children to walk or bike to school or nearby businesses and recreational activities, or to play outside on their own. The bill would protect parents who let their older children be at home alone after school before they get home from work, for example, Sosnowski said. The Illinois House overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday that would lower the age at which children could be left home without supervision. Communicates Openly - be able to talk easily with you about interests and concerns. Good parent-child communication is needed to ensure that any fears or problems that arise because of staying alone can be quickly discussed and dealt with.
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It also spurred the Illinois General Assembly in 1993 to act to toughen its laws on abandonment and neglect, which increased penalties for parents and gave the state more leeway to find neglect or abandonment. Illinois’ real-life “Home Alone” story inspired legislation that gives the state too much power to intrude into parents’ reasonable decisions about their children. In 2018, she let her 8-year-old daughter, Dorothy, walk the family dog around the block.
Illinois law lists15 specific factorsto be considered when deciding whether a child has been left alone for an unreasonable period of time. Parents and other persons responsible for a minor's welfare must think carefully about many things before leaving their children alone. If your neighbor is unsafe, if there are no adults nearby to call in case of emergency or if your child must remain alone for a very long time, it is best to continue to use some form of child care even if your child seems ready to stay alone. Although these laws say nothing about older kids, you could still be guilty of child abandonment if you leave children who are at least 14 years old by themselves. The longer they're alone, and the more alone they are, the more likely it is that you will face criminal charges for child abandonment. Federal and Illinois law mostly leave parents and guardians free to care for their children as they want.
Meanwhile, thousands of parents like Natasha have to make decisions about when they can leave their children unsupervised. And these cases are in no way comparable to the maltreatment of the Schoo children. Children who can get ready for school on time, solve problems on their own, complete homework and household chores with a minimum of supervision, remember to tell you where they are going and when they will be back are demonstrating some of the skills, they need to care for themselves. For many children these abilities begin to appear between the ages of 10 – 12.
We can't give legal advice in the comments, so if you have a question or need legal help, please go to Get Legal Help. Whether the parent or guardian informed another person that the child would be alone. “People who have talked to me say, ‘I have a 13-year-old and I want to leave them alone for a half an hour between when I have to go to work and when they have to go to school.’ It is very extreme the way the law is written right now,” Scherer said.
Lawmakers are considering throwing out the minimum age altogether, joining 39 other states that leave it up to parents. Parents and other persons responsible for a minor’s welfare must think carefully about many things before leaving their children alone. This is important, even if a child is left alone only occasionally or for short periods of time. Parents deserve to be able to make responsible decisions about when to leave their children home alone.
Supervision is important, but letting a child walk her dog or play in her neighborhood should never be labeled as negligence. Illinois sees leaving a child younger than 14 ‘Home Alone’ as a crime, one that state employees have vigorously applied. You might soon be able to leave your 13-year-old unsupervised at home. Some children do what you tell them and follow the rules, Coobes said. Republican Rep. Joe Sosnowski of Rockford said the legislation "makes a common-sense adjustment to state law."
The Illinois Criminal Code also makes child abandonment a Class 4 felony. A second offense is a Class 3 felony, you could face 2 to 5 years in prison. There are 39 states that set no minimum age to leave a child home alone, they leave that up to parents.
Patch reported that two days into the couple's trip, a fire alarm went off, causing the kids to go to a neighbor's house, and child welfare agents took the girls into custody. Common sense tells us most 13-year olds are perfectly capable of staying home alone after school while their parent is at work, but in Illinois, common sense isn’t the law. Chicago mother Natasha Felix also experienced in 2013 the overzealous enforcement of Illinois’ child neglect laws. She let her three sons – ages 5, 9 and 11 – run around the playground right outside their apartment window. A passerby called DCFS and Felix was charged for inadequate supervision – even though she was keeping a watchful eye on her children through the window. The highest age for a child to be left alone in other states is 12, and 30 states don’t have any age restrictions on leaving kids at home.
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