{"id":42111,"date":"2022-02-18T12:43:44","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T19:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-lawmakers-want-to-spell-it-out-its-legal-for-kids-to-play-outside-alone\/"},"modified":"2022-02-18T19:43:44","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T19:43:44","slug":"colorado-lawmakers-want-to-spell-it-out-its-legal-for-kids-to-play-outside-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-lawmakers-want-to-spell-it-out-its-legal-for-kids-to-play-outside-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado lawmakers want to spell it out: It\u2019s legal for kids to play outside alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A boy plays at a natural playground at East Greeley Natural Area on Nov. 13. The park is designed to encourage kids to use their imaginations. (Valerie Mosley\/Special to the Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Brinley Scheffield and her mom had run the route several times together and tracked the mileage \u2014 two trips around their neighborhood block made a mile.<\/p>\n

So when the 7-year-old who wanted to become a faster runner set off on her first solo run, her parents had no concern that she would get lost. Besides, they could keep her in their sights for about half of the jog.<\/p>\n

What they hadn\u2019t considered is that someone might call the police.<\/p>\n

The fact that a police officer knocked on the Scheffields\u2019 door minutes after Brinley finished her run is one of the reasons behind a bipartisan plan to clarify Colorado\u2019s child abuse laws. Lawmakers from both parties are wholeheartedly backing the proposal, even while expressing bewilderment that Colorado needs to specifically state that it\u2019s not illegal for kids to play outside by themselves. Or go to the park. Or ride a bike to school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI regret that we have to make this a law,\u201d said Rep. Mary Bradfield, a Republican from Colorado Springs. \u201cThere is a portion of our society that is pretty uptight and can\u2019t allow a kid to be a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Iman Jodeh, an Aurora Democrat, said the legislation promotes the idea that kids should play outside more and watch screens less.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this bill,\u201d she said, describing how she played outside without parents watching when she was a kid, heading home only when the streetlights came on. \u201cThose were the most enriching years of our childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Bill 1090 passed 13-0 out of the House\u2019s Human Services Committee and passed its first vote in the full House on Thursday. Notably absent from Capitol testimony, though, was the state child welfare division, which for years has run public service campaigns to encourage more people to call the statewide child abuse and neglect hotline.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Department of Human Services understands the intent of the bill, but is taking a neutral stance, spokesman Mark Techmeyer said via email. \u201cIt affirms that age-appropriate childhood activities, such as traveling to and from school, playing outside, or staying at home alone are not alone considered maltreatment according to Colorado law and practice if a prudent parent would consider these activities safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Techmeyer emphasized that it\u2019s important that the public call the hotline if they have a concern about a child\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeighbors look out for one another,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brinley, now 12, noticed a car following her when she was out for a run in her Castle Rock neighborhood. When the police officer arrived at her door, she assumed he was there to say he had arrested the person who had been creeping along the neighborhood street in a car as she ran. The girl burst into tears when she thought the officer was there to tell her that what she did was illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first thought was that they found the person that followed me and they were going to put them in jail,\u201d Brinley told lawmakers. \u201cBut then I realized that the officer was there because of me. I started to cry because I was scared. I thought I was going to get in big trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Christa
Christa Scheffield and her daughter, Brinley, of Castle Rock, pose for a photo. (Provided by Christa Scheffield)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The officer, upon realizing Brinley was just fine and that her mom knew she went for a run, did not make a report to child protective services. But the incident rattled her mom, Christa Scheffield, who wondered why someone would watch a child walk into her own house and then call the police. The mother of five said she is trying to raise independent children, kids who learn to handle issues on their own because they haven\u2019t always had a parent hovering.<\/p>\n

As parents have grown more fearful of kidnappings and other crimes, they\u2019ve restricted kids\u2019 freedom, Scheffield said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided we need to keep our hands on kids a little bit tighter, rather than empowering them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another mom told lawmakers that parents who home-school their children are sometimes the subject of child abuse hotline or police calls because their kids are playing outside during school hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce a family is in the system, they are guilty until proven innocent, the very opposite of what our judicial system affords us in the name of liberty,\u201d said April Hawley with Christian Home Educators of Colorado. \u201cParents have a fundamental right and responsibility to make decisions concerning the care, custody and control of their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The point of the bill is mainly to make a statement: no need to assume young kids playing outside, walking to school or staying home alone are neglected. It also aims to decrease unnecessary involvement in the child welfare system, lawmakers said.<\/p>\n

In reality, most calls to the child abuse hotline to report lack of supervision are unsubstantiated. Of 3,854 allegations of lack of supervision in 2019, 82% of them were unfounded, said Rep. Mary Young, a Greeley Democrat and a prime sponsor of the bill along with Rep. Kim Ransom, a Douglas County Republican.<\/p>\n

But even when the allegations are eventually dropped by the child welfare department, getting called by child protective services or the police is anxiety-provoking, Young said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means that families, children were impacted by this identification process,\u201d she said. \u201cThis really has a negative impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, families of color are more likely to be the subject of reports to the hotline, according to data from the Colorado Department of Human Services. Black children are the focus of calls to the child abuse hotline 1.27 times more than their percentage of the population in Colorado. White kids, meanwhile, are underrepresented in hotline calls relative to their representation in the state population.<\/p>\n

Low-income families are less likely to pay for supervised activities or sports teams, meaning those children are more likely to play outside alone, bill supporters said.<\/p>\n

A similar bill was cruising through the Legislature in 2020, but was abandoned when the pandemic forced a Capitol shutdown. The measure faces one more vote in the House before heading to the Senate, where its prime sponsors are Aurora Democrat Janet Buckner and Douglas County Republican Jim Smallwood.<\/p>\n\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bipartisan measure would clarify that it isn\u2019t child abuse for children to play outside or stay home without parents <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[747,233,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-children","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42111"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}