Can I leave my child home alone in Kansas during summer break? What the state says
School is out for the summer, creating a greater need for child care even as it is increasingly hard to come by in Kansas.
According to advocacy group ChildCare Aware of Kansas, child care programs in the state have decreased 17% since 2018. Data show in Sedgwick County specifically, there are 11 to 20 children per child care opening.
It’s not just Kansas. Across the U.S., the cost for child care has skyrocketed even as availability has become scarce. Nationwide data from ChildCare Aware puts the average cost of child care in 2021 at $10,600 per year, 35% of the income of the average single parent.
When school lets out for summer, parents of elementary-aged children may be scrambling to find alternative options, summer camps or simply considering whether their child is safe on its own. But can you leave your child alone in the state of Kansas?
Is it legal to leave my child home alone in Kansas?
The Kansas Department for Children and Families says children should not be home alone for any period of time if they are under the age of 6.
Children ages 6 to 9 can be left during short periods, while children older than 10 can be left home alone for longer periods of time, the agency reports.
However, while those are the state’s guidelines, deciding when a child can be home alone mainly depends on the situation and the maturity of the individual child.
As for the legality, there are no specific state laws on the books saying what age a child can be left alone, according to the state agency, but there are ways to check if your child is ready for the responsibility.
How to know if your child is ready to be home alone
The Child Welfare Information Gateway, a federal service of Children’s Bureau, the Administration for Children and Families and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recommends parents to ask themselves a set of questions before leaving their child home alone.
Those questions are:
- Is your child able to take care of themselves?
- Is your child obedient?
- How does your child deal with stress?
- How does your child feel about being home alone?
The Child Welfare Information Gateway also says to evaluate the situation before deciding, considering how long the child will be unsupervised and what time during the day they’d be alone.
If you do decide to leave your child home alone, you should never leave them for an extended period of time.
Before leaving a child home alone for the first time, the agency recommends trying it out first by leaving home for just a short period while staying close by. You can also act out possible scenarios with your child to see how they’d react to different situations.
Before leaving a child unsupervised, Kansas DCF says to make sure they know what to do in an emergency. It’s also important to have a list of emergency contacts available just in case the child needs to contact someone. They should also know where an adult is in case of an emergency.
DCF also says to evaluate what tasks are given to the child, as too much responsibility can cause unneeded stress when alone.
