At what age can a child be left home alone or babysit?
Question
At what age can a child be left home alone or babysit?
Answer
Most States do not have regulations or laws about when a child is considered old enough to stay home alone or to babysit other children. Some States have guidelines or recommendations. These guidelines are most often from child protective services and are administered at the county level. Contact information for all State child protective service agencies is available on Child Welfare Information Gateway’s Web site at http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/reslist/rl_dsp.cfm?rs_id=5&rate_chno=11-11172.
The National Network for Child Care offers the Home Alone publication that provides information about things families can consider when deciding to leave their children home alone. The publication also provides the Self-Care Readiness Checklist. It is available on the Web at http://www.nncc.org/SACC/sac31_home.alone.html.
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