Incidents of parents who are in class and leave their children at home alone are not uncommon at Iowa State, officials say.

This is what happened to a 5-year-old boy in University Village last week when he was found in the doorway of his home unattended. Incidents such as this occur often in a year’s time, said Loras Jaeger, director of the Iowa State Department of Public Safety.

According to a DPS report, the Ames Police Department received three 911 hang-up calls from Hawthorne Court on March 29.

When a DPS officer arrived, the boy said his mother was at work and his father was in class. Moments later, the father, a graduate student in animal science, came and was informed that it was unacceptable for him to leave his child unattended.

No criminal actions have been taken, but the case is being investigated by the Department of Human Services, Jaeger said.

Claudia Koone, social work supervisor of the Department of Human Services (DHS) in Polk County, said incidents where a child is left unattended are especially common in a university community.

“There is a higher incidence [of unattended children] on college campuses because of student housing,” she said.

Officials said leaving the child home alone is not a responsible option. There are several services on campus that offer child care to students, faculty and staff.

Most of the cases that are investigated are isolated incidents and not on-going cases, said Patrice Linke, social work supervisor of the DHS in Story County.

Jaeger said incidents when children are left alone vary.

“Sometimes the parents are found in the area. Other times the child is found in the care of a neighbor or babysitter and the child goes wandering off,” he said. “Sometimes there’s miscommunication in that the parent thinks someone else is going to take care of their child.”

Child service agencies are informed of child neglect incidents by neighbors, anonymous callers, law enforcement, child care centers and schools.

“Sometimes, when it comes from schools, kids are alone and [a school official] calls home and the kid answers,” Koon said. “Normally, we don’t get it from the child dialing 911.”

But there are cases where children will dial 911, Linke said. “We’ve had problems in the past where kids call 911 because they’re home alone.”

Anybody can report something they suspect to be child abuse, but leaving a child alone may not necessarily be considered child abuse, she said. Many factors are looked at in cases where the child is unsupervised, such as the child’s age.

Koone said since the Iowa Code doesn’t have an age specification as to what age a child can be unsupervised, it depends on the circumstances.

“If there are people we can contact at the intake level, we assess whether or not the child is capable or not of self-supervision,” she said. “For example, many 13-year-olds are babysitting other children, but we cannot make that assumption in every case. Maybe they’re retarded, getting in trouble or home too long.”

Linke said besides maturity level, other factors that play in the child’s assessment is the length of time he or she is left alone and if there is an emergency plan.

In an emergency situation, a child must know how to dial 911, what adult authority to notify, when to answer the phone and when to answer the door.

If parents have any doubt in their minds about whether a child should be left home alone, they probably shouldn’t, Linke said.

She said if parents are to leave their child with someone, they must familiarize and trust the person they are leaving him or her with.

“They must use common sense,” she said. “Parents know their kids better than anybody else.”