Fewer Home Alone As Census Sees 39% Drop in Latchkey Kids
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The number of grade-school American children who spend time at home alone has plunged by almost 40 percent since 1997, a result of both federal aid for after-class programs and parents revamping work schedules, census data show.
Only one in nine kids aged 5 to 14 spends after-school hours in a home without parents, according to a census report. That compares with about one in five left unsupervised in 1997. Some 4.5 million children were alone for an average of 6.5 hours every week in 2011, the latest year for which figures are available.