Question

At what age can children be left by themselves? My kids sometimes get home from school before I do. I want to know if I can get in any trouble if they’re at home by themselves.

Answer

Many people think there is a simple answer to this question, but there is not. State law suggests an answer in some situations, but it doesn’t have one rule that applies to every child. The only real answer to your question is that “it depends.”

Federal and Illinois law mostly leave parents and guardians free to care for their children as they want. Sometimes laws can punish you for abandoning or neglecting your child. But those laws still give the police and the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) a lot of choice in deciding what to do.

Two criminal laws deal with kids who are left alone in Illinois. One law says that you cannot leave a child 6 year old or younger unattended in a car for more than 10 minutes.l This may be child endangerment depending on the circumstances. “Unattended” means that the child is not with someone who is at least 14 years old. It can also mean that the child is out of that person’s sight. Child endangerment is a Class A misdemeanor. This means you can face up to 1 year in jail and up to a $2,500 fine.

The second law says that you cannot leave a child under the age of 13 alone. This is child abandonment. This means no responsible person over the age of 14 is with the child. The child must be alone for 24 hours or more. Child abandonment is a Class 4 felony. This means you can face 1 to 3 years in prison. If you are convicted of child abandonment for a second time, you can face 2 to 5 years in prison. 

The law lists 15 factors the judge will look at to decide if a child was abandoned, such as: 

• The child’s age and special needs,
• Whether the child was left entirely alone,
• Whether the child had an emergency number to call, and
• Whether the parent or guardian told another person that the child would be alone.

Although these laws do not say this, you can still be guilty of child abandonment if you leave a 14-year-old child alone. The longer the child is alone with no other people, the more likely you will face criminal charges for child abandonment.

This criminal law of child abandonment is similar to state child welfare laws. Under the Juvenile Court Act, it’s child neglect to leave a minor under 14 years of age “without supervision for an unreasonable period of time without regard for the mental or physical health, safety, or welfare of that minor.” The judge will look at the same factors from above to see if a child was neglected.

If DCFS gets a hotline call that a child is left alone, they may investigate this as child neglect. See the DCFS investigations page for more information on what this process might look like.

In addition to the Illinois criminal code, there is a DCFS rule that says licensed daycare providers can't leave children under 18 in cars or buses by themselves.