At What Age Does Washington Law Permit Kids to Walk to School Alone?

I live around the corner from an elementary school in Wenatchee, and I see very few children walking to school alone or riding their bikes. Many parents accompany their kids to school, either on foot or by car. Quite a difference from my own elementary school years in the late sixties—most of us walked to school or rode bikes, and I lived in Downey, CA, at the time.

Times have changed certainly, and I, too, was very safety conscious with my own children during their years at Washington Elementary. But is there an age cutoff when kids can legally walk or ride a bike to school without parental supervision in Washington or elsewhere?

Get our free mobile app

Turns out no.  One right parents still have is the right to determine if their kids can travel to school on their own, and that includes Washington state.

There are guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that suggest children are usually ready to walk to school without an adult starting in fifth grade—or around age 10.

Children under age 10 aren't mature enough, according to AAP, and they are not cautious enough around traffic. However, that policy came out in 2009

Sara Siddiqui, a pediatrician at NYU Langone’s Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital in New York, addressed the dilemma for parents on Care.com.

“A child’s ability to communicate and ask questions if they’re unsure of anything is an important quality. Consider the distance and types of roads on which they’ll be traveling. If a child is unwilling or does not feel comfortable, then they may not be ready to walk to and from school by themselves."

READ MORE