Child Endangerment: Is it Legal to Let Your Child Play Outside Alone?

 Posted on October 24, 2024 in Criminal Defense

If you are a parent, you have probably heard horror stories about parents being charged with a crime or having CPS get involved because their children were briefly left playing outside alone, in no real danger. When today’s parents were children, they were afforded much more independence. It was not uncommon for older children to walk a few blocks to a playground alone or to ride their bikes to a neighborhood convenience store without an adult with them. Today, this can be a legal gray area. However, Texas’s Reasonable Childhood Independence laws provide some protection for parents who allow their children outside alone. If you are charged with child neglect, child endangerment, or a related offense, you need an experienced Houston, TX criminal defense lawyer.

Texas’s Reasonable Childhood Independence Laws

Texas’s Reasonable Childhood Independence law states that children should not be removed from their homes because their parents "allowed them to engage in independent activities that are appropriate and typical for the child’s level of maturity, physical condition, developmental abilities, or culture." While this law pertains to the removal of children and findings of child neglect by the Department of Family and Protective Services rather than criminal arrests for child neglect or endangerment, there is a lot of overlap between criminal prosecution and DFPS involvement. The Reasonable Childhood Independence laws are likely to inform police action as well.

Texas’s Criminal Child Neglect and Endangerment Laws 

Parents can be charged with a crime for putting their child in a situation that is unsafe (child endangerment) or for abandonment (leaving the child without adequate care). Neither law is very specific when it comes to cases where children are simply playing outside alone. Whether a parent might be charged with a crime for letting a child play outside alone would likely depend on the circumstances of the case.

 An older child riding her bike around her own neighborhood would probably not be an issue even if her parents are not home, while a very young child doing the same thing while his parents are inside might be. Whether there are any known dangers, such as ponds or stray dogs, in the area where the child is playing could also be a factor. Since it is not the specific act of letting a child play outside alone but the act of putting a child in an unsafe situation that is considered a crime, these laws are not black-and-white.

Contact a Houston, TX Criminal Defense Lawyer 

Murphy & McKinney Law Firm, P.C. is experienced in defending parents who have been accused of endangering their children. Knowledgeable Harris County, TX criminal defense attorney Doug Murphy will do all he can to defend you against abandonment or endangerment charges after letting your child play independently. Contact us at 713-229-8333 for a complimentary consultation.