Hello Steve and all -- Attached is Hackley Library's Unattended Children Policy, FYI. It's time for us to look at it again since it was last reviewed in 2007, but I don't anticipate major changes. We may look at defining the age of an accompanying adult. At the time this was first written, HPL was part of Muskegon Public Schools, and I learned then through school channels that in the State of Michigan children age 7 and up are presumed to be able walk unattended to a neighborhood elementary school. As I remember it, that's one of the reasons that there are buses for kindergarteners, but not necessarily for elementary age students who live close to their school. This legal concept may have changed. We are a city library and have many young visitors who are unattended by adults ever. For some kids, the library is a safe place when home and the streets are not, and some kids are locked out of their homes, so our emphasis is on their behavior. The library may be the best and safest place some kids can come to on their own, they may have made a good choice to come here, but they have to behave appropriately. We have visitors from a number of different school districts, which is why we don't necessarily get too excited about teens in the library during the school day. Different high schools are closed for lots of different reasons and the teens could well be legitimatly off for the day for their district. We leave 'em be unless their behavior causes us to intervene. We definitely call the school and check out the situation for younger kids who visit the library without an adult during the school day; there can be a social work reason why they chose to come here instead of school or home. Hope this is helpful. Marty Ferriby, Director Hackley Public Library 316 W. Webster Ave. Muskegon, MI 49440 231-722-7276 We are exploring our existing policy concerning unattended children, and we want to get a feel for how other libraries handle this issue. Please let us know what your policies are regarding children coming into your library. We're concerned about age ranges and when you require adult supervision. Thanks, Steven F. Smith Administrative Librarian Dearborn Public Library 16301 Michigan Ave. Dearborn, MI 48124 (313) 943-2812 ssmith@ci.dearborn.mi.us _______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list Michlib-l@mcls.org http://mail2.mcls.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l