State Policies And Updates
State Policy Maps
Utah passed the first “Reasonable Childhood Independence” law in 2018. In 2020, Let Grow surveyed the non-criminal neglect laws that are enforced by child protection authorities (below), as well as the criminal codes (map on right) of all of the states and the District of Columbia. Our goal was to determine which states allow parents to sometimes let their children be alone. 
This map covers when child protective services can intervene in a family suspected of neglect.
States use a variety of names for the laws that authorize investigations and punitive action when unsupervised children are considered endangered. Since Utah, another seven states have passed “Reasonable Childhood Independence” laws: Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Virginia, Connecticut, Illinois and Montana.
This map covers laws that are enforced by police and criminal courts.