Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Are there any guidelines for leaving 3 children alone for 12 hours while the Mother works (5-11pm) and visits her boyfriend afterwards? The oldest boy is 16 and is a very Special Needs child, next is a girl (immature) 14 and youngest is a 6 year old boy. They are left alone every Monday, Wednesday and every other Friday night, Saturday and Sunday's for 4-8 hours as well. Father lives out of state. Parents will be filing for Divorce in October.


Asked on 9/10/09, 10:23 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Christopher Steuart IT Forensics, Inc.

There is no law on specifically what age a child may be left unattended or how long. Child neglect requires a determination based on the totality of the circumstance. The information you have provided suggests that it may be neglect. CPS is the agency that handles these situations, but I would need much more information before I would say it definitely is neglect. You may want to talk this over with a CPS caseworker.

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Answered on 9/16/09, 12:48 am


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