At what age can a child stay home alone in Iowa? Here's what state law says

How young it too young for a child to be left home alone?

The case of an Iowa City man facing a mountain of legal trouble after leaving his then-9-year-old daughter alone for three hours while drinking at a restaurant with friends raises the question.

Turns out, there's no easy answer.

What do Iowa laws say about when a child can be left alone?

Iowa has never had a law that prescribes a minimum age. Only a few states do: Illinois (age 14), Maryland (age 8) and Oregon (age 10), according to the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

There is no generally agreed-upon age for when children can be left alone. Children mature at different rates, andsome may be able to accept the responsibility of being home alone earlier than their peers.

More: An Iowa educator went out for drinks while his daughter was alone. Did he endanger her?

But that doesn't mean kids can always be left alone

Correct. Under Iowa law and those in many other states, failure to provide proper supervision of children is a category of child abuse.

Reggie Shipp, 33, an Iowa City school administrator, has been charged with child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor. To be convicted, a prosecutor must prove he knowingly acted in a manner that created "a substantial risk" to his daughter's physical, mental or emotional health or safety. Shipp says that he has raised his daughter to be independent and that she was safe.

Iowa Department of Health and Human Services evaluates child abuse reports on a case-by-case basis.

"If a report of suspected child abuse is accepted for intake, child welfare case workers ask a number of questions to determine if there are safety concerns," spokesperson Alex Carfrae said in an email. "Questions include whether the child knows what to do and who to contact in an emergency, how long the parents were away, and whether the child is comfortable being home alone."

"Caseworkers may also use the reasonable person standard ― would a reasonable person act in the same manner given the same or similar circumstances? ― to determine if the case rises to the level of abuse," he wrote.

What do child care pros think?

Nemours KidsHealth, one of the largest integrated pediatric health systems in the country, has said most children under the age of 10 do not have the skills to handle emergencies if they are home alone. But research conducted in 2019 at the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine, which was published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, shows that even social workers nationally disagree, to some extent, over when leaving a child home alone constitutes neglect.

While a majority of nearly 500 social workers in that study said they thought children should be at least 12 before being left alone four hours or longer, they weren’t as likely to consider a home-alone scenario neglect unless the child was injured.

The study found nearly all social workers said they thought leaving a child home alone for four hours was child neglect when the child was 6 or younger. But only about 50% indicated it was neglect if the child was 7 to 10.

What rights do parents have to decide what's appropriate for their child?

In recent years, state legislators have begun to introduce measures that attempt to prevent government overreach and protect parents who want to teach children independence. Bills have been filed after parents have been arrested or investigated for simply allowing children to walk alone to a park or play outside unsupervised.

In Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah, “free-range parenting” or “reasonable childhood independence” laws have been enacted, seeking to clarify that children can partake in independent activities that areappropriate for their level of maturity, abilities and culture, and that neglect requires blatant disregard of parental responsibilities in a manner likely to cause a serious risk or harm to a child.

At least nine other states — Connecticut, Nevada, Idaho, South Carolina, Nebraska, Arkansas, Illinois, Oregonand Pennsylvania — have considered, but not passed, similar legislation, according to Hannah Ditzenberger, a researcher with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: At what age can kids stay home alone in Iowa?