were you a child once are you still do
you have children or plan to have
children someday and do you hope that if
you have children you’ll be allowed to
let them ride their bikes around the
block or play outside do you hope that
you can run an errand and leave your
kids in the car with a smoothie on a
reasonably cool day without being
stopped by authorities if you’re not a
parent parent you too are affected
perhaps you recall you were able to play
outside and the rights you enjoyed as a
child are no longer guaranteed or you
are concerned about children on your
block and you wonder if they if any
adult knows where they are and should
you call authorities maybe you’re
wondering why these are even questions
am i asking a question about a parent is
this a parenting class
what do I a lawyer who works with
children in the child welfare works with
families in the child welfare system
what do I have to say about any of these
questions
no this isn’t a parenting class the
questions I’m asking to my way of
thinking are very important legal and
policy questions and they’re ones that I
think that our society needs to do a
better job of answering than it’s been
doing for the last thirty years what’s
at stake is a basic right of Children
and Families and the laws policies and
practices have an enormous impact
so to begin to answer the questions that
I posed I’m going to tell two stories
these involve parents who made the
reasonable decision that they could let
their children be alone and the child
welfare authorities disagreed the first
story I’m going to tell you is alarming
but it’s not unusual both of these
stories by the way involve me
professionally as a attorney for
families in the child welfare system
Natacha felix had three children ages
eleven nine and five and one day in the
summer of 2013
her children wanted to play outside and
she thought that was fine there was a
park right next to her house and she
could look out the window and every ten
minutes she was able to look out at them
they were outside for about thirty
minutes
but while they were playing outside a
daycare teacher came by the park and she
apparently didn’t wasn’t aware if there
was an adult anywhere nearby and so when
she went back to her class she called
the child abuse and neglect hotline to
report a suspicion of abuse
now you might expect that a child
investment protection investigator would
come to the house find out that this was
fine with the mother that the kids were
fine and closed the case but that’s not
what happened all through the summer
investigation stayed open and naturally
natasha was fearful that if she let her
kids play in the park again they might
be taken from her and put into foster
care she wouldn’t even let her kids take
out the garbage anymore and at the end
of the investigation the state made a
finding that she had neglected the
children and they put her name in the
state child abuse register that’s not a
criminal register but it does operate as
a blacklist now Natasha had an even
bigger problem because she worked in the
hill field of home health care and she
was seeking employment so now because
she had let her kids play outside she
could no longer pursue her career goals
and she was impaired in her ability to
support her family now I mentioned that
this is was typical how so well first of
all the kids were fine there is no
history of abuse or neglect second
natasha is a single mother and she’s
struggling to support her family and
third she’s an ethnic minority she
supporter Rican latina now Natasha was
able to appeal this decision
and we provided her a pro bono lawyer to
sister and you might assume that the
during the case would conclude that
there was no neglect but that’s not what
happened in fact the judge concluded
that because the oldest child had a
tension deficit hyperactivity disorder
he could not watch his younger siblings
now mind you there was no psychological
testimony to say he couldn’t serve
supervise his younger siblings that was
just an assumption the judge made so we
appealed the case further and it seemed
like nobody cared what might happen to
Natasha and her children and her
children until another case came along a
case that made international news and
put the word free-range children and
free-range parents into the national
conversation so in December of 2014 two
children named Brophy and devorah motiv
were riding in the car with their father
they were 10 and 6 years old they
spotted a park and they asked their dad
could they go play in the park and then
walk home they knew the way the dad said
sure and but the kids as they were
walking home from the park were stopped
by the police and soon child protection
authorities were at the door demanding
that the father agreed to never let the
kids be alone again otherwise the
authorities in Silver Spring Maryland
would take those children from the
family naturally he agreed but then the
family went to the Washington Post and
soon this case made international news
now I said the case was different than
Natasha the family was different and
circumstances were different in what
ways well first of all daniel native had
become familiar with the term free-range
parent she had read a book by Lenore’s
kanay Z a New York journalist who had
let her own son ride the New York City
Subway when he was 9 years old and she
then wrote a blog about it and that
looked generated a lot of
energy and conversation about free range
kids so Danielle mate Eve had actually
made little signs for her kids and the
Washington Post picked up on that and
they soon were reporting about these
kids as free-range kids and we were all
talking about free-range children now
the second way in which this family was
a different is that they were a white
suburban middle-class family and they
were highly educated and third these
stamped the children were extremely
articulate and the family was
unembarrassed and unashamed of their
decision to let the kids play even so
even with all the international media
the family problems did not abate in
April they let the kids play in the park
again and the police picked them up and
held them through the dinner hour the
family must have felt that like the kids
were kidnapped but after that incident
they were able to negotiate a new policy
with the authorities so I mentioned the
cases were connected to me how so well
first of all when the main TV story
happened people started talking about
child protection they realized that this
was not a joke neglect findings are
serious they can have many consequences
there can be job consequences employment
education consequences consequences for
custody the there’s trauma to the
children anxiety for the parents there
may be legal bills and there’s of course
an impact on the parenting decisions
that are being made in addition people
were asking questions about
investigations don’t our tax dollars are
going to pay for this and don’t
investigators have anything better to do
soon I was getting media calls not about
the mate and not about them the
Natasha’s case which was the case I had
worked on but about the mate Eve’s in
Silver Spring Maryland and we were being
asked to do media interviews so in order
to give a better picture of what was
going on to fan
he’s like Natasha’s we decided to write
a report we issued it in July of 2015
and pretty soon the case that was
pending on in the appellate court got
the attention of the administration and
they wanted to drop the finding against
Natasha finally and negotiate a new
policy on when children can be alone so
how did we get to this point how did we
get to the point where we have all cases
like the Natasha’s case and Cate cases
like the mate Eve’s well when I was a
child and when many of you were children
there were no federal laws that required
people to call child abuse hotline when
they suspected abuse or neglect but in
1974 Congress passed a federal law and
mandated that many types of
professionals must call the hotline when
they believe there may be abuse or
neglect as a result we now have seven
point two million children reported in
2015 alone now fortunately less than 10%
of those cases have are substantiated
and the numbers of physical and sexual
abuse cases are actually dropping but
the overall numbers are not dropping and
that means that there are many cases
that are being swept in in the large
category of neglect in Illinois alone
there are 30,000 people registered as
child neglect errs for having engaged in
what’s called inadequate supervision we
can’t distinguish the cases like
Natasha’s from the cases that may be
serious where a person has partied all
night and left children unattended which
we would consider true neglect because
the dad isn’t broken at down but in our
own office there are many many cases
just like Natasha’s where we would say
that this is not neglect now why do we
have so many calls well three reasons
first we have cell phones and it’s so
easy to call call second we have very
broad neglect statutes which
leave open-ended discretion to
investigators to find neglect when they
see it even if a reasonable person would
disagree and third people are encouraged
to call and there’s very little
understanding of the consequences of the
call so what can we do well we do have
an important tool it’s the United States
Constitution it provides that parents
have the right the fundamental right a
basic right to raise their children and
direct their upbringing as they see best
unless they are truly abusive or
neglectful in which case the state can
limit those rights but that poses the
problem how do we distinguish how do we
create a good policy that will catch the
true neglect errs and leave everybody
else alone I think we can agree that
there’s such a thing as too much
supervision and it’s bad to mandate too
much parental oversight over children
look at this poor child Mari look he’s
still going and nothing’s happening
sometimes it just is that way Geraldine
sometimes that’s just the way it goes
what do you mean he’s a college student
it’s not normal
maybe it’s just growing pains since when
it comes to patient a growing pain it is
it is a growing pain cuz you guys leave
me alone for a minute what’s with you
always wanting to be alone it’s not
normal
don’t you miss your parents I don’t know
what to make of this I can’t deal with
this Mari I’m going by the way that’s my
younger son and the smothering mother in
the background is now my daughter-in-law
and the filmmaker was my older son and
this was made about seven years ago
right here at the University of Chicago
for the 48 hour film festival so how do
we answer the question of what’s a
reasonable pant policy and balance all
these interests well who better to look
to than reasonable parents and to
reasonable professionals like the
American Red Cross the American Red
Cross actually trains children as young
as 11 to be babysitter’s for their
younger siblings and psychologists will
say that
children as young as six or seven can be
alone for short periods and that’s good
for them and of course there’s variation
but between children but who better than
the parent to make the decision about
their child’s capabilities so we need to
ask what’s a good policy and and what’s
a bad policy and let’s look at a bad
policy
this is Illinois policy until this month
it I daresay if you are a student at the
University of Chicago you may your
parents may be in violation of this
policy because you’re put in a
circumstance beyond your abilities
beyond your judgment beyond your
maturity that’s what education is all
about let’s look at a better policy the
new policy focuses in on blatant
disregard of the duty of care to your
children and obvious harm we can ask
does this policy distinguish between
natascha the mate Eve’s and a truly
neglectful policy if it doesn’t it’s a
bad policy in fact it may be no policy
at all all across America we have no
amorphous bad neglect laws that are
being applied arbitrarily usually to
families that are disadvantaged but
often to families that are have every
advantage as well this is bad for
children because they need to be
independent in order to grow and it’s
bad for families who cannot live in fear
so it’s a deny when children cannot play
outside
that’s the denial of as fundamental
right as I know so what can we do ten
children be alone well only if we fight
for the right of all of us it’s all of
us who are affected by this so if you
are concerned that a parent you know is
letting their child be alone and you
disagree that they should do that
realize that it’s better to let that
parent decide than to leave it to a
child protection investigator who
doesn’t know that child
and realized too that having broad
amorphous neglect laws affects all of us
we’re all in this and if we can’t be
safe and letting children go outside
then we are all in danger of losing our
most precious rights so can you let
children be alone yes sometimes it’s
good for them
thank you
[Applause]
you have children or plan to have
children someday and do you hope that if
you have children you’ll be allowed to
let them ride their bikes around the
block or play outside do you hope that
you can run an errand and leave your
kids in the car with a smoothie on a
reasonably cool day without being
stopped by authorities if you’re not a
parent parent you too are affected
perhaps you recall you were able to play
outside and the rights you enjoyed as a
child are no longer guaranteed or you
are concerned about children on your
block and you wonder if they if any
adult knows where they are and should
you call authorities maybe you’re
wondering why these are even questions
am i asking a question about a parent is
this a parenting class
what do I a lawyer who works with
children in the child welfare works with
families in the child welfare system
what do I have to say about any of these
questions
no this isn’t a parenting class the
questions I’m asking to my way of
thinking are very important legal and
policy questions and they’re ones that I
think that our society needs to do a
better job of answering than it’s been
doing for the last thirty years what’s
at stake is a basic right of Children
and Families and the laws policies and
practices have an enormous impact
so to begin to answer the questions that
I posed I’m going to tell two stories
these involve parents who made the
reasonable decision that they could let
their children be alone and the child
welfare authorities disagreed the first
story I’m going to tell you is alarming
but it’s not unusual both of these
stories by the way involve me
professionally as a attorney for
families in the child welfare system
Natacha felix had three children ages
eleven nine and five and one day in the
summer of 2013
her children wanted to play outside and
she thought that was fine there was a
park right next to her house and she
could look out the window and every ten
minutes she was able to look out at them
they were outside for about thirty
minutes
but while they were playing outside a
daycare teacher came by the park and she
apparently didn’t wasn’t aware if there
was an adult anywhere nearby and so when
she went back to her class she called
the child abuse and neglect hotline to
report a suspicion of abuse
now you might expect that a child
investment protection investigator would
come to the house find out that this was
fine with the mother that the kids were
fine and closed the case but that’s not
what happened all through the summer
investigation stayed open and naturally
natasha was fearful that if she let her
kids play in the park again they might
be taken from her and put into foster
care she wouldn’t even let her kids take
out the garbage anymore and at the end
of the investigation the state made a
finding that she had neglected the
children and they put her name in the
state child abuse register that’s not a
criminal register but it does operate as
a blacklist now Natasha had an even
bigger problem because she worked in the
hill field of home health care and she
was seeking employment so now because
she had let her kids play outside she
could no longer pursue her career goals
and she was impaired in her ability to
support her family now I mentioned that
this is was typical how so well first of
all the kids were fine there is no
history of abuse or neglect second
natasha is a single mother and she’s
struggling to support her family and
third she’s an ethnic minority she
supporter Rican latina now Natasha was
able to appeal this decision
and we provided her a pro bono lawyer to
sister and you might assume that the
during the case would conclude that
there was no neglect but that’s not what
happened in fact the judge concluded
that because the oldest child had a
tension deficit hyperactivity disorder
he could not watch his younger siblings
now mind you there was no psychological
testimony to say he couldn’t serve
supervise his younger siblings that was
just an assumption the judge made so we
appealed the case further and it seemed
like nobody cared what might happen to
Natasha and her children and her
children until another case came along a
case that made international news and
put the word free-range children and
free-range parents into the national
conversation so in December of 2014 two
children named Brophy and devorah motiv
were riding in the car with their father
they were 10 and 6 years old they
spotted a park and they asked their dad
could they go play in the park and then
walk home they knew the way the dad said
sure and but the kids as they were
walking home from the park were stopped
by the police and soon child protection
authorities were at the door demanding
that the father agreed to never let the
kids be alone again otherwise the
authorities in Silver Spring Maryland
would take those children from the
family naturally he agreed but then the
family went to the Washington Post and
soon this case made international news
now I said the case was different than
Natasha the family was different and
circumstances were different in what
ways well first of all daniel native had
become familiar with the term free-range
parent she had read a book by Lenore’s
kanay Z a New York journalist who had
let her own son ride the New York City
Subway when he was 9 years old and she
then wrote a blog about it and that
looked generated a lot of
energy and conversation about free range
kids so Danielle mate Eve had actually
made little signs for her kids and the
Washington Post picked up on that and
they soon were reporting about these
kids as free-range kids and we were all
talking about free-range children now
the second way in which this family was
a different is that they were a white
suburban middle-class family and they
were highly educated and third these
stamped the children were extremely
articulate and the family was
unembarrassed and unashamed of their
decision to let the kids play even so
even with all the international media
the family problems did not abate in
April they let the kids play in the park
again and the police picked them up and
held them through the dinner hour the
family must have felt that like the kids
were kidnapped but after that incident
they were able to negotiate a new policy
with the authorities so I mentioned the
cases were connected to me how so well
first of all when the main TV story
happened people started talking about
child protection they realized that this
was not a joke neglect findings are
serious they can have many consequences
there can be job consequences employment
education consequences consequences for
custody the there’s trauma to the
children anxiety for the parents there
may be legal bills and there’s of course
an impact on the parenting decisions
that are being made in addition people
were asking questions about
investigations don’t our tax dollars are
going to pay for this and don’t
investigators have anything better to do
soon I was getting media calls not about
the mate and not about them the
Natasha’s case which was the case I had
worked on but about the mate Eve’s in
Silver Spring Maryland and we were being
asked to do media interviews so in order
to give a better picture of what was
going on to fan
he’s like Natasha’s we decided to write
a report we issued it in July of 2015
and pretty soon the case that was
pending on in the appellate court got
the attention of the administration and
they wanted to drop the finding against
Natasha finally and negotiate a new
policy on when children can be alone so
how did we get to this point how did we
get to the point where we have all cases
like the Natasha’s case and Cate cases
like the mate Eve’s well when I was a
child and when many of you were children
there were no federal laws that required
people to call child abuse hotline when
they suspected abuse or neglect but in
1974 Congress passed a federal law and
mandated that many types of
professionals must call the hotline when
they believe there may be abuse or
neglect as a result we now have seven
point two million children reported in
2015 alone now fortunately less than 10%
of those cases have are substantiated
and the numbers of physical and sexual
abuse cases are actually dropping but
the overall numbers are not dropping and
that means that there are many cases
that are being swept in in the large
category of neglect in Illinois alone
there are 30,000 people registered as
child neglect errs for having engaged in
what’s called inadequate supervision we
can’t distinguish the cases like
Natasha’s from the cases that may be
serious where a person has partied all
night and left children unattended which
we would consider true neglect because
the dad isn’t broken at down but in our
own office there are many many cases
just like Natasha’s where we would say
that this is not neglect now why do we
have so many calls well three reasons
first we have cell phones and it’s so
easy to call call second we have very
broad neglect statutes which
leave open-ended discretion to
investigators to find neglect when they
see it even if a reasonable person would
disagree and third people are encouraged
to call and there’s very little
understanding of the consequences of the
call so what can we do well we do have
an important tool it’s the United States
Constitution it provides that parents
have the right the fundamental right a
basic right to raise their children and
direct their upbringing as they see best
unless they are truly abusive or
neglectful in which case the state can
limit those rights but that poses the
problem how do we distinguish how do we
create a good policy that will catch the
true neglect errs and leave everybody
else alone I think we can agree that
there’s such a thing as too much
supervision and it’s bad to mandate too
much parental oversight over children
look at this poor child Mari look he’s
still going and nothing’s happening
sometimes it just is that way Geraldine
sometimes that’s just the way it goes
what do you mean he’s a college student
it’s not normal
maybe it’s just growing pains since when
it comes to patient a growing pain it is
it is a growing pain cuz you guys leave
me alone for a minute what’s with you
always wanting to be alone it’s not
normal
don’t you miss your parents I don’t know
what to make of this I can’t deal with
this Mari I’m going by the way that’s my
younger son and the smothering mother in
the background is now my daughter-in-law
and the filmmaker was my older son and
this was made about seven years ago
right here at the University of Chicago
for the 48 hour film festival so how do
we answer the question of what’s a
reasonable pant policy and balance all
these interests well who better to look
to than reasonable parents and to
reasonable professionals like the
American Red Cross the American Red
Cross actually trains children as young
as 11 to be babysitter’s for their
younger siblings and psychologists will
say that
children as young as six or seven can be
alone for short periods and that’s good
for them and of course there’s variation
but between children but who better than
the parent to make the decision about
their child’s capabilities so we need to
ask what’s a good policy and and what’s
a bad policy and let’s look at a bad
policy
this is Illinois policy until this month
it I daresay if you are a student at the
University of Chicago you may your
parents may be in violation of this
policy because you’re put in a
circumstance beyond your abilities
beyond your judgment beyond your
maturity that’s what education is all
about let’s look at a better policy the
new policy focuses in on blatant
disregard of the duty of care to your
children and obvious harm we can ask
does this policy distinguish between
natascha the mate Eve’s and a truly
neglectful policy if it doesn’t it’s a
bad policy in fact it may be no policy
at all all across America we have no
amorphous bad neglect laws that are
being applied arbitrarily usually to
families that are disadvantaged but
often to families that are have every
advantage as well this is bad for
children because they need to be
independent in order to grow and it’s
bad for families who cannot live in fear
so it’s a deny when children cannot play
outside
that’s the denial of as fundamental
right as I know so what can we do ten
children be alone well only if we fight
for the right of all of us it’s all of
us who are affected by this so if you
are concerned that a parent you know is
letting their child be alone and you
disagree that they should do that
realize that it’s better to let that
parent decide than to leave it to a
child protection investigator who
doesn’t know that child
and realized too that having broad
amorphous neglect laws affects all of us
we’re all in this and if we can’t be
safe and letting children go outside
then we are all in danger of losing our
most precious rights so can you let
children be alone yes sometimes it’s
good for them
thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: