Hi all,

I did a quick search for policies at public libraries, and all of the ones
that I looked at admitted minors without an adult by age 13.  Some admitted
minors as young as 9 without an adult.  As such, it seems like contemporary
standards in the US still allow teenagers to function in society
with some degree of independence from their parents.

Travis

On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Deb Fuller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 12:18 PM, Carol Ely <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > I understand the legal and other issues that can come up with an
> unaccompanied young child - but older children can be quite responsible and
> happy museum goers. How do you distinguish? What age is the cut-off?
>
> It's still a legal issue if that child is a minor. I too went to
> museums by myself as a kid but that was 30 years ago and times have
> changed. Plus how many unaccompanied kids can your museum accomodate
> before it becomes a day care? I used to work at a nature center, which
> was next to a rec center with a drop off program. I was one of two
> staff during the day. Kids from the rec center would come over and
> play in our center. This wasn't an issue if they were playing nicely
> but we could only handle so many kids at a time. When it got too
> crowded, we could boot them back to rec center. If you don't have that
> option, what do you do? And trust me, once people know they can drop
> off their kid at your museum, they will start taking advantage of it.
>
> You could have a policy where kids have to sign in and you keep info
> on them on file but that opens up another legal can of worms. Plus you
> might get hit with daycare laws and that's more rules and regs and
> training and certifications, etc. etc. It's just best to have a no
> unaccompanied minors policy. When doubt, check with your house council
> if you really want to know all the legal fall out
>
> Deb Fuller
>
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-- 
--------------------------------------
Travis Nygard
[log in to unmask]
www.travisnygard.com

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