How old may a child be home alone?

What is the name of your state? California

What is the legal age a child can be home alone?

My son is 11-1/2 and wants to ride the bus home after school, instead of going to the sitters. He would be home for only aprox. 1-1/2 hours. Also if he is legal to do so, could he keep an eye on his brother who is 8, who would turn 9 in January.

Anyone? I could really use some insight into this.

[cbg]

First of all, this is a volunteer board. Operators are not standing by 24/7 to take your call. It is often necessary to wait longer than 50 minutes for an answer.

That said, as I mentioned in another post, I really don't think you're going to find a statute that says: "Legal age for a child to stay home alone - xx". Nor do I believe there to be a statute that says: "Legal age for a child to supervise younger brothers and sisters: xx". There's a common sense aspect to this. How mature is the kid? How well do he and his brother get along? Is there an adult nearby that they can call? And so on.

Originally posted by cbg
First of all, this is a volunteer board. Operators are not standing by 24/7 to take your call. It is often necessary to wait longer than 50 minutes for an answer.

That said, as I mentioned in another post, I really don't think you're going to find a statute that says: "Legal age for a child to stay home alone - xx". Nor do I believe there to be a statute that says: "Legal age for a child to supervise younger brothers and sisters: xx". There's a common sense aspect to this. How mature is the kid? How well do he and his brother get along? Is there an adult nearby that they can call? And so on.

Thanks for the update on how a net forum works

Secondly, there is a statute out there. I just can’t find it. California is pretty through with there laws. We are the sue happy state

And to answer your questions, yes he gets along with his brother, pretty well, like average siblings do. And there is family a stones throw away (we live on a ranch), they just don’t want the responsibility of "baby sitting" him nor does our 11 year old son.

The problem lies with the boy's father. Who is a complete jerk and is always causing problems. When things get out of control and he becomes a jerk, he threatens my wife with this issue and threatens to call CPS on her and have them taken away if she allows him to do this. We know that this won’t happen, but it freaks her out. SOOOOO.... I am looking for confirmation to this law and validity in that she can do this.

You see we haven’t done this yet, but the boy wants more of this type of responsibility. It would be more cost effective for us, and of course the boy's father is a complete dead-beat and doesn’t lift a finger to help them in ANY way and he knows that this is hard on us.

Iasked that question in Georgia about 5 years ago and was told the age is 12. This was by our local family and children's services. I didn't ask about other underage children being with them.

In most places there isn't a law per-se. During my divorce (NY) my older daughter was watching her younger sister for about an hour for me (at the time she was 12)...my ex found out and called the police. They came to my home to investigate, asked my daughter a few questions (designed to "test" maturity level) and determined she was good to go. THey left a message with her for me to call them when I returned to let me know the call had come in and the result. They told me its a case-by-case basis, that there is no "legal age", and that they had informed my ex that my daughter seemed very capable of sitting her sister.
My older daughter did attend Red Cross babysitting classes and was certified - the RC gave her a card to carry (which helps her get alot of paid sitting jobs). You may want to look into that. As the police also told me, if the Red Cross obviously feels she's capable of sitting outside of the home who's my ex to say she's not?

When my son was getting older I went through the same thing. I called children and family services and my local police dept. Both told me the info i needed it is age 12 in our state but only he could be home alone. My daughter still had to go to a sitter until she reached this age. Kathie

In WI, a lot of daycare centers won't take children over 12. In addition, kids can take a "Safe Sitters" course and babysit other children at 12.

course offered by the Red Cross was she was only 11. She even got a "cool" certification card from them. I highly recommend that you and your wife look into this option. This course is generally offered at hospitals but I'd call the Red Cross to see where the next course meets. It's a really neat course - they teach CPR, emergency first aid, "what to do if a natural disaster hits" and naturally tips on being a "Safe Sitter".

Good luck!

[tammy8]

Call your local Dept of Social Services. My SS has watched his sisters after school for almost a yr now for about 1 to 1/2 hrs in the afternoon. Their bm found out, got mad and called DSS. DSS went to the kid's school and talked to all of them and then came to our home one evening. After talking to me and the kid's Dad, social worker told me that our county has no certain age of staying home or babysitting. It all depended on the maturity level. BTW when Social services came into our home, SS was 2 weeks away from being 12. Since this time, if school is out and the bm doesn't want the kids, the girls go to work with me and SS stays by himself all day. Most of his friends stay by themselves also.

As long as your children know the rules (in our home, no cooking, no computers, call me or Dad every 30 minutes, lock the doors, NO FIGHTING) there should be no problem.