Let’s predict it right here, right now: By 2030, every state in America will guarantee parents that they can give their kids some “reasonable independence” without triggering an investigation for neglect.
Of course it takes time to crest to that point. But this year, the Colorado, Nebraska and South Carolina legislatures are all considering bills modeled on the “Reasonable Childhood Independence” laws passed in Texas and Oklahoma last spring (and in Utah in 2018—the so-called “Free-Range Parenting” law). At this point, fully 10% of American parents enjoy legal protection for letting their children play unsupervised.
The bills passed to date had overwhelming support from both parties. Can you believe it? Something BOTH PARTIES AGREE ON!
That’s because you don’t have to be a Republican or a Democrat to want kids to be able to play outside without Mom and Dad living in fear of neglect charges.
Read more about our legislative work by hopping over to this post at Let Grow.
And if you’d like to help us out, with stories or testimony, hop over to our advocacy page, or with a contribution, hop over to our donations page.
Basically, just keep hopping and hoping. We are on our way!
2 Comments
Bravo!
Yeah, supported by both parties because they both want to see the precedent that you can’t do ANYTHING unless it’s been pre-authorized by government agents. Instead of properly clarifying existing laws about what constitutes abuse or neglect and what these agencies should actually be investigating and persuing, we’re going to pass whole new laws that pre-clear only a certain limited set of specific activities! This is the exact opposite of how America is supposed to operate…absolutely disgusting…
Also worth pointing out that these new laws still leave a ton of room for abuse. Your kid is explicitly allowed to walk home alone, but only if the government agent who happens to witness it personally thinks they’re of an appropriate age to do so. If they already think there’s nothing wrong, do they REALLY need a new law to tell them not to do anything about it?
Just another sign of the collapse of common sense in US policing — instead of exercising any kind of common sense discretion, they enforce any and every law to the fullest extent possible…and our response is to pass more and more laws to further restrict ourselves in some asinine attempt to lower the required intelligence of our enforcement officials.