Promoting Childhood Independence and Resilience Act of 2026

Key Points

• The bill creates a federal definition of "reasonable childhood independence activities" that includes playing outdoors, taking public transit, walking or biking to school, running errands, staying home alone, babysitting younger children, and waiting in a car briefly while a parent steps away. These activities cannot be treated as child abuse or neglect unless they involve an unreasonable disregard of a foreseeable risk of serious harm.
• States must update their child welfare plans and train caseworkers to recognize that letting kids do age-appropriate activities independently is not neglect. The goal is to stop traumatic and unnecessary government investigations of families who are simply giving their children more freedom.
• Parents would receive protections against criminal or civil charges, custody investigations, mandated services, and child abuse registry placement solely for allowing their children to participate in these defined independence activities.
• The Department of Health and Human Services must conduct a study within 180 days on how states can better empower parents to give children opportunities for unsupervised independence activities, including reviewing whether current risk assessment and investigation practices deter parents from allowing normal childhood freedoms.
• States that need to change their own laws to comply get extra time. If a state legislature needs to pass new legislation, the state plan will not be considered out of compliance until after the first regular session of the state legislature following enactment.