MURKY LAWS MAKE IT TOO EASY TO LABEL GOOD PARENTS 'NEGLECTFUL'.

• Author: Skenazy, Lenore
• Position: LIFESTYLE

IS IT LEGAL for parents to let their kids play outside on their own or stay home alone for a little while? That's a simple question without a simple answer.

At Let Grow, the nonprofit I co-founded to promote childhood independence, we just completed a first-of-its-kind study of all 50 states' neglect laws. I am sorry to report that a large majority say parents must not deprive a child of "supervision" or "proper care" but do not explain exactly what those terms mean. Others say parents may not expose their kids to "risk," without specifying how big or dangerous that risk has to be in order to be prohibited. Too much is left to the discretion of the authorities, which is why you've heard of parents arrested or investigated for letting their 8-year-old walk the dog or letting their 9-year-old play at the park while her mother worked a shift at McDonald's.

Recently 1 heard from a South Carolina mom who wondered if her kids in first, third, and fifth grade were allowed to walk the mile home from school. The kids, who walk all around town, were psyched about the idea, but the principal decreed that an adult must accompany them. So could the mother get arrested--or even lose her kids--for letting them hoof it?

South Carolina's criminal law is virtually silent on what specifically constitutes child endangerment. Meanwhile, the rules enforced by the state's Child Protective Services, an agency that has the power to put kids in foster care, say children are neglected if their parent engages in "behavior" or an "occupation" that could endanger others. Does that merely refer to a mom who is making meth--or could it also apply to one who lets her kids walk home alone? And who gets to decide if the walk home counts as dangerous? The principal? A social worker? A judge?

A bill aimed at fixing that statute passed South Carolina's Senate unanimously in 2019 but had to be shelved in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut the legislature. Left hanging was the question: Shouldn't parents be allowed to decide how much independence their kids are ready for?

"Parents largely remain in the dark as to when and how they can safely make those basic decisions," longtime civil rights lawyer and Let Grow consultant Diane Redleaf writes for the American Bar Association's Children's Rights Litigation newsletter. Redleaf, a co-chair of United Family Advocates, is working on...