Iowa Parents Are Not Responsible for Ordinary Risks of Life

I learned from my colleague Tom Rawlings’ Substack that a recent opinion from the Iowa Supreme Court takes a new look at the issue of parents’ leaving children unsupervised.  Paula Cole went shopping, taking her infant with her and leaving her five other children, ranging in age from 5 to 12, home asleep.  Predictably, two of the children got into an argument.  Not so predictably, the nine-year-old child left the apartment, “stomping around” outside. An older child went to a neighbor who helped keep an eye on the children, but the two were not able to coax the nine-year-old back into the apartment.  The older child ultimately called 911.

The rest of the story follows the usual pattern. Police charged Ms. Cole with child endangerment for leaving her children unsupervised, and she was convicted. The Court of Appeals upheld the conviction. The unanimous opinion by the State Supreme Court, however, gave it an unexpected ending.

The Iowa statute defines child endangerment as knowingly acting “in a manner that creates a substantial risk to a child or minor’s physical, mental or emotional health or safety.” The state high court found that Ms. Cole did not create a danger to her children. In its analysis, the court noted,

not all risks that children encounter are “created” by their parents or other caregivers. Life is inherently risky. None of us can escape all risks. And no parent can shield a child from all risks. Rather, parents’ best hope is simply to manage life’s risks— including the very real risk that our efforts to avoid one risk will end up creating new and different risks. . . .

A parent does not create a risk if that risk is part of the background risk of ordinary life. Rather, a risk is created by a parent when the parent’s behavior produces an identifiable risk that falls outside the range of risks that accompany ordinary life. 

The court concluded that there was not sufficient evidence that Ms. Cole created an extraordinary risk for her children. “Of course, because life is inherently risky, Cole’s children encountered risks while she was away. But we don’t think those risks were created by Cole’s decision to go to Walmart while her children slept in their apparently safe apartment in a secured building in which a helpful neighbor resided. Rather, they were ordinary risks of everyday life.”

This is only one decision from one state, and of course Ms. Cole had to go through the process of being arrested, investigated by child protective services, and convicted before being vindicated. This opinion is, however, a glimpse of reasonableness in allowing parents to raise more independent and less risk-averse children.