How Old Does A Child Have To Be To Stay Home Alone?

When can you leave kids alone in Ontario is a common query among parents, especially in light of increasing daycare expenses. In a recent Family Court appeal decision in British Columbia, which has been reported in the national media, the court ordered that a very mature eight-year-old child was too young to stay home alone based on his age alone. The court did not care about the child’s maturity level but noted that many children under the age of 10 had been injured or harmed when left unsupervised. On that basis, the Court ordered that the child welfare authorities could intervene in the family. 

In Ontario (and British Columbia) there is no statute that says how old a child must be to stay home alone. However, s. 37(2) of the Child and Family Services Act authorizes the court to order that a child be placed in foster care, or that a children’s aid society can intervene in the family, if a parent has failed to make adequate provisions for the care of a child or if the child may be at risk of physical harm. Children’s Aid Societies have used these provisions as a basis for intervening because parents have left a child, who is too young, unsupervised. So leaving a child alone at too young an age can result in the parents ending up in court or the child ending up in foster care.

As there is no legislated age when a child can be left alone, whether a child is too young is really an evaluation that a child protection worker makes if the child comes to the attention of the Children’s Aid Society. Some agencies have guidelines, but in Ontario, only Durham Children’s Aid Society publishes its guidelines for when children should be supervised. Those guidelines say that parents may consider leaving children at home under “indirect supervision” starting at age 10. The expectations of other agencies may or may not be similar. Even the DCAS guidelines note that this is a judgment call. But, because of the drastic consequences that can face parents (and children) in Child Protection Court, parents really should “play it safe” and err on the side of caution. Whether a child is too young to be home alone is frequently a decision made by the one child protection worker investigating the situation and his or her beliefs on the subject can carry the day.

One thing that is clear from the BC case is that the child protection worker did not trust the mother who was leaving the child alone. Even if the child was very mature, the mother’s approach to the worker was not cooperative. That lack of cooperation made the worker suspicious and doubt the mother’s judgement as a parent. There are some very important rules to follow when a child protection worker comes to your door. One of those is to do everything possible to make a good first impression with the worker. In these cases, making the right impression on the worker can be the difference between whether your child ends up in foster care or whether the children’s aid society goes away completely.