At What Age Can I Leave My Child Home Alone? - Indiana Juvenile and Custody Law

What is the minimum age to leave a child home alone?  

Most states do not have a minimum age.  However, in states that do have a minimum age it ranges from 8 to 14.  In Indiana, there is no minimum age, rather the answer is "it depends".  According to the Indiana Department of Child Services brochure appropriately titled "Home Alone", "[t}here is no right answer for every child. There is no magic age when a child suddenly becomes responsible and mature. But there are ways to evaluate your child’s capabilities in order to make a more informed decision."

The brochure includes some interesting statistics:

• Nearly 4.5 million children ages 14 and under are injured in the home every year.
• The vast majority of unintentional injury-related deaths among children occurs in the evening hours when children are most likely to be out of school and unsupervised.
• Children are most likely to be victims of violent crimes by non-family members between the hours of 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
• Violent juvenile crimes triple between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m

Lastly, the brochure offers a "self-test" of questions and issues for parents to consider.   The questions include:

1. Is your child mature enough to be home alone? 
2. Can your child handle fear, loneliness, and boredom? 
3. Is there a responsible adult nearby—a relative or a neighbor—who your child can call for assistance?
4. Does your child know emergency procedures? 
5. Have you reviewed fire escape routes? 
6. Is there a first aid kit available, and does your child know how to use it? 
7. Does your child perform everyday tasks such as fixing a snack, dialing the phone, and writing messages?
8. Does your child regularly solve small problems without assistance, knowing when it’s okay to ask for help?  
9. Does your child manage conflicts with/among siblings without adult help? 
10. Is your child comfortable with the idea of staying alone? 

If this topic is important to you I encourage you to review the entire brochure. Also, there is a website with resources for "latch key kids" here.

Parenting Coordination, Model Rules, Part 1 - Indiana Custody Law

We've written about parenting time coordinators, or parenting coordination before.  Parenting coordination is evolving in Indiana.  The New Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines will likely include references to parenting coordination.   Just this past year a Court of Appeals case held that a parenting time coordinator may my be ordered upon parents, even where one of the parents objects.  The Domestic Relations Committee and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the Judicial Conference of Indiana have released Model Rules and a Model Order for parenting coordination.  They are accepting comments until May 26, 2011.

The proposed rules define parenting coordinator as: "an impartial third party qualified under these rules, who is appointed by the court to assist parties in resolving issues and recommending solutions to disputed issues relating to parenting in any action for dissolution of marriage, legal separation, paternity, or guardianship where a minor child is involved."

The proposed rules provides that following persons may qualify as a parenting coordinator:

• The Parenting Coordinator shall at all times be a registered Indiana domestic relations mediator.
• The Parenting Coordinator shall be a licensed mental health provider as defined at Ind. Code § 31-33-25-4, with a minimum of a master’s degree in a mental health or related field, or an attorney licensed to practice law in Indiana with substantial family law practice experience.  
• The Parenting Coordinator shall have at least five years experience in their profession with high conflict or litigating parents.  
• The Parenting Coordinator shall have training in the parenting coordination process, family dynamics in separation and divorce, parenting coordination techniques, domestic violence and child maltreatment.  The training shall consist of a minimum of twenty hours of Indiana Supreme Court Commission for Continuing Legal Education approved parenting coordinator training, to include at least five hours of domestic violence training. 
• A Parenting Coordinator shall maintain professional competence in the parenting coordination process.  A Parenting Coordinator may participate in peer consultation or mentoring to receive feedback and support on cases.  

The model rules address other aspects regarding how a parenting coordinator must practice.  We will summarize those in future posts. 

Collaborative Law - Indiana Collaborative Divorce

Collaborative law is a new option in Indiana divorce law practice, and is best thought of as another type of alternative dispute resolution (a.d.r.).  It has more in common with mediation than traditional litigation.  

What is Collaborative law?  

The International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (“IACP”), describes collaborative law as follows:

The heart of Collaborative Practice or Collaborative Divorce (also called "no-court divorce," "divorce with dignity," "peaceful divorce") is to offer you and your spouse or partner the support, protection, and guidance of your own lawyers without going to court. Additionally, Collaborative Divorce allows you the benefit of child and financial specialists, divorce coaches and other professionals all working together on your team.

In collaborative practice, parties are contractually committed to:

o   Negotiate a mutually acceptable settlement without having courts decide issues.

o   Maintain open communication and information sharing.

o   Create shared solutions acknowledging the highest priorities of all.

In practice, using collaborative law to resolve a divorce will involve a series of open, group meetings where the parties and their attorneys meet to discuss resolution.  Agenda’s are developed for these meetings and parties and attorneys collaborate to resolve preliminary and final issues for the family. The first meetings might determine preliminary custody, parenting time and support issues, as well as who will occupy the marital residence and who will be responsible for which expenses. Further meetings would focus on how to bring the case to final resolution and develop a collaborative settlement agreement. 

One of the benefits to collaborative law is that therapists (called "divorce coaches" in collaborative law), accountants, and other professionals can be used by the parties and brought to the meetings.   

Like mediation, the collaborative process is confidential. However, unlike mediation, if the collaborative process fails and the parties ultimately decide to use go to court their collaborative attorneys must withdraw and they must hire new attorneys.  

Moreover, during the process the parties and their attorneys are not allowed to threaten litigation or use litigation to resolve the divorce.  This is major difference, and is the source of much criticism of collaborative law.  But, it is the lack of litigation as a option that keeps collaborative law... well, collaborative, rather than positional.  Think of two children fighting over the best toys.  The fairest option would be for them to share the toys.  But, at some point, one child will want to grab the toys and run to Mom and/or Dad for help, or, maybe decide they want to fight for the toys. Collaborative law attempts to take away these "nuclear options" and force the children to determine on their own that it is their best interest to thing to share the toys.