Millions of School-Age Children Left On Their Own

By Linda Jacobson

An estimated 4 million children between the ages of 6 and 12 are routinely caring for themselves before and after school while their parents are working, a new report shows.

But the lack of adult supervision is of more concern for some children than it is for others—namely, younger children and those from low-income families, according to the study being released this week by the Urban Institute and Child Trends, two Washington-based research organizations.

For those groups of children, "research shows that regularly leaving a child unsupervised can contribute to negative child outcomes," the report states. Those children might also benefit the most from organized before- and after-school programs, said Jeffrey Capizzano, a research associate at the Urban Institute and one...