It’s been more than 15 years since the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota began purchasing easements from property owners to extend the popular Gateway Trail into Scandia.

Now, that work is finally coming to fruition.

City officials next month expect to approve the plans and specifications for a trailhead on city-owned land near Meister’s Bar & Grill along with a tunnel under Oakhill Road (Washington County Road 52) and a one-mile trail connecting the two, said City Administrator Kyle Morell. The estimated cost of the project is $4.6 million. Construction could start in May and should be complete by the end of 2026, he said.

A Sept. 19, 2025, map shows the Gateway Trail plans between Scandia and William O’Brien State Park, which include a tunnel under Oakhill Road. (Kathryn Kovalenko / Pioneer Press)

But the tunnel, which has an estimated price tag of $1.5 million, has been controversial. Officials from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the agency that will own, operate and maintain the state trail, say it is a necessary safety measure.

The Gateway Trail is one of the state’s most heavily used trails, attracting an estimated 314,000 users in 2024. It currently runs 19 miles from St. Paul to Pine Point Park in Stillwater Township. Plans call for a four-mile extension of the Gateway Trail from the east entrance of William O’Brien State Park to downtown Scandia, and the number of users is expected to only increase, said Kent Skaar, the senior project manager for acquisition and development for the DNR’s parks and trails division.

“The tunnel is absolutely a safety consideration,” Skaar said. “Do we have crossings of highways like Oakhill Road? Absolutely. Are we intentionally trying to find them and build them? No. We’re building tunnels where we can and where it makes sense, and here it really does.”

But Linda and Loren Nickelson, the couple who owns land on Oakhill where the tunnel will cross the highway, say it is unnecessary and poorly planned.

Linda Nickelson grew up in the area and owns 54 acres of undeveloped land on the north side of Oakhill. The land in question has been in her family for generations. “My great-grandparents came from Sweden and settled in the area in the mid-1800s,” she said during a recent tour of the property. “It’s where I grew up.”

Nickelson, who lives in Crosslake, Minn., said she only recently learned of the plans for the tunnel, which she claims will “destroy more than half of our road frontage and create a wetland on the remaining portion.”

She is asking city officials to halt the plans before it is too late.

“I’m not against the trail,” she said. “But just because some people put the cart before the horse and went forward with partial payment for preliminary work on this tunnel does not mean this tunnel should come to fruition and sit there dormant for many years into the future. The Gateway Trail hasn’t even been constructed to connect to the tunnel.”

Plans call for trail sections on both sides of a realigned Oakhill Road to accommodate bicycles, pedestrians and horseback riders. The tunnel crossing is designed for pedestrians and bicyclists; they will be directed to use the trail section on the north side of the road and cross under Oakhill via the tunnel. Horseback riders will be directed to a trail section on the south side of the road, so horses do not have to go through the tunnel; they will cross at an at-grade crossing further northwest on Oakhill Road, where the trail meets the road at the property just north of Nickelsons’ land.

“The fact that a very short distance down the road, there will be a crossover for horses, bikers and pedestrians who do not want to use the tunnel, makes this whole endeavor seem foolish,” Nickelson said.

The trail also will require the “clear cutting” of 100-year-old oak and maple trees north of their property, Linda Nickelson said. “That’s a pity considering how very few people will end up using that trail.”

The state in 2017 purchased a trail easement for $91,000 from the property owner on the south side of Oakhill, and no construction easement is required on an adjacent property as the new alignment will be contained within the easement, Skaar said.

Linda Nickelson said it makes more sense to have the entire trail built on the south side of Oakhill Road and come out on city-owned property near where the city’s new Water Tower Barn Arts and Heritage Center will be built.

“That brings the trailhead out in close proximity to pickleball and tennis courts, a playground, picnic tables, the Gammelgården Museum and a much larger parking lot for horse trailers,” she said. “Isn’t that a much safer alternative? There would be no need for a tunnel, no crossover, no need to construct a parking lot in an extremely busy section of Scandia. No removal of 100-year-old oak and maple trees, no unlawful destruction of wetlands, no very expensive road reconfiguration.”

If the tunnel is deemed unnecessary, that money “could go towards the actual trail construction,” she said. “A tunnel to nowhere serves no purpose.”

The majority of the easements for the existing state trail corridor were acquired between 2007 and 2010 following consideration of potential options, community support and landowner interest, Skaar said. Several options were considered during the corridor selection and property acquisition, including the south side of Oakhill, he said. “This included the consideration of potential trailhead locations, including a ‘shared-use’ facility as suggested, which as I remember was considered too impactful to the city’s current activities and uses,” he said.

Skaar said all state trail corridor acquisition is from “willing sellers only.”

He also said the trail segment from Scandia to the tunnel will have “limited wetland impacts.” The plans have been completed in compliance with the Minnesota Wetland Conservation Act, and the impacts will be mitigated, he said.

Project deadline

The tunnel and trail will be located on county-owned right-of-way that abuts the Nickelsons’ property. Officials have asked the Nickelsons for a temporary construction easement to access her property to grade the slopes from the property to the trail, but she said she will not grant it. “That would be like putting a stamp of approval on foolish spending,” she said.

Crews can work around it, but it will mean constructing a two- to five-foot retaining wall and a fence in the right of way “to construct the trail at the appropriate grades and not infringe on their property,” said Mayor Steve Kronmiller.

If the Nickelsons, who would like to build senior housing on the property, agree to the construction easement, the city would create an access to the property that meets city standards, he said.

Scandia Mayor Steve Kronmiller. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“Right now, they’re driving through a wetland on a farm road to get to their property,” he said. “If we’re not allowed to have the easement, our costs are going to go up in order to build the retaining wall and all of that. If they want to develop their property in the future, they’re going to have to build that access themselves.

“We’ve been trying to work with them. They just don’t like the tunnel, and I think they’re trying to find a way to stop it, and I understand that.”

The city got a $2.68 million grant from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources to extend the trail from the trailhead behind Meister’s Bar & Grill to Oakhill Road. The money also will cover a realignment of 2,000 feet of Oakhill Road and the raising of the road by 6 feet to accommodate a new tunnel under the road.

Funding for the trail extension, per the terms and conditions of the LCCMR grant appropriation, must be expended by June 30, 2027, Skaar said.

“If it is not complete, the funding disappears,” Skaar said. “At this point, the plan is basically complete. Right now, the intent is to proceed to a construction contract and award this fall with construction next year. It can be done in a year.”

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Washington County is contributing $800,000 for work related to the tunnel and the realignment of Oakhill and another $200,000 for the project is coming from the Federal Recreational Trail Grant Program that the DNR applied for and received, Skaar said.

Scandia officials are taking the lead in the design and construction of the trail. If the winning bid comes in higher than anticipated, the DNR will work to help secure that additional funding, Skaar said.

Washington County agreed to help pay for the project because a tunnel is needed for the “long-term safety and comfort of trail users,” said County Engineer Wayne Sandberg. “It’s consistent with how we have been managing other regional and state trails at uncontrolled crossings of county highways.”

The speed limit on that section of Oakhill is 55 mph.

Said Kronmiller: “Even if we reduce the speed limit to 30 mph, the sight lines in that area aren’t the greatest. If you’re not really familiar with the area, especially if you’re coming in from Highway 95, you’re going to come up and all of a sudden there’s this crossing in the middle of nowhere that you just wouldn’t expect to be there. … It would be unsafe to have a pedestrian crossing at grade.”

“We’ve learned that at-grade crossings don’t work well with that much bicycle traffic,” Sandberg said. “That’s why we were really strong on going into this one, that if we’re going to extend the Gateway up to Scandia, we need to make sure this is a tunnel from the very beginning, so we don’t have a tragedy right out of the chute.”

Washington County officials will not allow the trail to cross Oakhill, a county highway, at grade, Sandberg said. To support a grade separation, county officials agreed to contribute financially toward a tunnel option, he said.

Built in segments

Doug Ferron, of Forest Lake, rides along Oakhill Road on his way through Scandia on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. Today the Gateway Trail ends 10 miles south of Scandia at Pine Point Regional Park, but plans call for it eventually to reach Scandia via William O’Brien State Park. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Eventually, the trail will go south from the tunnel to a new trail entrance to William O’Brien State Park on the north side of the park. The trail will go through the park and then eventually connect to Pine Point Park, the current terminus of the trail.

The trail is being built in segments as money and land become available, Skaar said.

Why build the northernmost part of the trail before the rest of the trail is constructed? Skaar said all long trails are built in phases, and that it makes sense to do the Scandia segment first.

“It is really a circumstance, admittedly, of funding,” he said. “When it comes to state trails, we are building incrementally when funding and the corridor is available.”

Building a trail from Scandia all the way to Pine Point Park would be a substantial project to design and construct “in a typical period,” he said. “Building them in 1-, 2- or 3-mile segments is really the most efficient. … That has been the history of the program and remains so.”

The DNR is obtaining design work for the portion of the trail from the tunnel at Oakhill to William O’Brien and is estimating construction to be “three to five years out,” he said.

In 2024, William O’Brien State Park had 205,747 day uses and more than 22,000 overnight uses. Many of those visitors will be traveling up to Scandia once the trail is constructed, Kronmiller said. “When you look at all of these factors, now all of a sudden (a tunnel) makes sense.”

Scandia resident Susan Rodsjo said she predicts the Gateway Trail extension is going to be a huge boon to the area.

“It’s been frustrating that it has taken so long to actually get it here,” she said. “I’m just hoping it’s here by the time I have grandkids at this point, so I can enjoy it with them. When we bought the land, that was actually one of the huge benefits to us, that the Gateway Trail was coming to town. We’ll be able to hop on our bikes, go to William O’Brien. Eventually, we’ll be able to bike all the way to St. Paul. That’s pretty darn cool.”

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Rodsjo said she expects the Gateway Trail to do for Scandia what the Root River Trail did for Lanesboro and the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area did for Crosby.

“Have you been to Crosby?” she said. “We have gone through Crosby for years. They made something out of their mines for mountain biking, and they really did a phenomenal job. Next thing you know, ‘We’re, like, let’s go to Crosby for the day.’ There’s good restaurants, there’s fun shops. They have the most amazing grocery store. All of a sudden, it’s the hot spot. … There’s so much you can do for your economy with things like biking.”

Mayor Kronmiller said he is certain things will work out and the trail will be constructed as planned.

“It’s like a puzzle with a bunch of pieces that all have to be put together in the right way at the right time, and it’s all starting to come together now,” he said.

By Nikki Ekstein, Bloomberg News

Call it foliage season, shoulder season, Q3 or plain old fall: It’s the best time of year for big cities and big adventures, and it’s coming up fast. In any constantly evolving metropolis, this is when restaurant rows and museum miles flash with glitzy new openings and exhibits, all of them ready to capture a local population that’s spent the last few months decamped somewhere else.

And autumn is your best chance to get better-than-summer weather in many beachy getaway spots — without peak summer pricing. That may be truer than ever this year, as global tourism contracts on the heels of tariffs and broader economic uncertainty.

If you want to be in the right place at the right time, look no further: Here are five perfect-for-fall escapes pulled from our master list of where to travel in 2025. As a bonus, they’re all doable as long weekends from a wide variety of U.S. and European cities.

Upper East Side, Manhattan

In New York City, uptown has been downtown-ified. Madison Avenue, once the exclusive domain of rarified labels and shoppers in red-soled shoes, has seen Covid-era store closures get filled in with youthful brands such as LA-import Violet Gray and flagships of of-the-moment brands like L’Agence. Unlike other prime shopping neighborhoods, which feel aggressively packed with an outpost of every brand you’ve ever heard of, the UES feels curated. You’ll actually enjoy yourself as you stock up on Khaite trench coats, Still Here denim and Gorjana charm bracelets.

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The restaurant scene here has never been more exciting (just try to nab a reservation at Chez Fifi, Le Veau d’Or or Le Café Louis Vuitton). And on the hotel front, what’s old is new again. The excellent Surrey is now a Corinthia hotel, with an outpost of Miami’s beloved Casa Tua restaurant bringing social buzz (and so many Chanel handbags) to the first floor. Stretch the neighborhood’s boundaries a smidge to include the just-redone Waldorf Astoria on 50th Street — it’s a worthy reboot of the city’s most iconic stay, complete with a new restaurant by Gramercy Tavern’s Michael Anthony.

Don’t forget the area’s art institutions, which are worth a revisit even if you’ve been many times. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has just reopened its renovated Rockefeller Wing, for instance, featuring new collections that highlight work from Africa, the ancient Americas and Oceania. And the Frick has reopened this year after a five-year, $330 million renovation that (among other draws) reinstated a pair of grand gardens and added a spectacular new auditorium for intimate concerts.

Paros and Antiparos, Greece

The Kolymbithres beach on Paros Island, Cyclades, Greece. (Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS)

Let it serve as a sign of the times that one of the hottest amenities for Mykonos resorts this summer — besides a Missoni-branded beach club, natch — was a fleet of speedboats to take guests to neighboring Paros. That’s how much buzz has built around this rising star of an island, and its little sister, Antiparos, in the last year alone. (Don’t just take our word for it; American Express Travel put Paros on its list of hot destinations for 2025 this summer, based on how many of its cardholders were racing to book trips to the island.) Drawing people there are the holy trinity of Greek vacation attractions: Perfectly clear-watered beaches, cross-island breezes ideal for kitesurfing, and traditional whitewashed architecture.

And if Paros and Antiparos used to be a lower-priced alternatives to their iconically nightlife-packed neighbor, those values are evaporating as the island’s cultural clout soars. Take the Rooster, Antiparos’ most sought-after hotel: Rooms are going for $2,500 per night in the middle of September. That particular property closes for the season by the time October rolls around, but many others now stay open. Included in that set is Parilo, a Design Hotel with 33 minimalist-boho suites that can be booked beginning at just $370 per night through October 25. (Its restaurant is a destination unto itself, having earned two Michelin stars and a Michelin Green star for its zero-waste, ethically sourced approach to local Greek cuisine.) Book it with Marriott Bonvoy points for an even better deal.

London

The energy in London this year has coalesced in a surprising area: All along the Elizabeth tube line. But nothing is poised to be as game-changing as the hulking, Eero Saarinen-designed U.S. Embassy in Grosvenor Square, reborn in late August as the 144-room Chancery Rosewood. Around its massive perimeter, looking out onto leafy Mayfair, is a quiver of ultracool restaurants like the Avro-Ko-designed brasserie Serra and outposts of New York institutions Carbone and Masa. (Local culinary legend Ruth Rogers is also said to be opening a venue, and there’s a cafe serving floral-inspired creations by pastry chef Marius Dufay.) The rooftop is home to the Eagle Bar, so named for the way its oversized windows look out past the giant gilded bird that crowns the hotel’s port cochere and towards Hyde Park. It’s fast becoming the most coveted spot for after-work drinks, complete with a sprawling outdoor terrace and a menu by talented NoMad vet Liana Oster.

Rome

You’d think Italy’s fashionistas would have a hard time shifting their center of gravity anywhere south, north, west or east of Milan. And yet in 2025, fashion houses such as Dolce & Gabbana and Dior are using this year’s Vatican Jubilee as one of many excuses to move their runway shows to the Eternal City. Some 30 million visitors were originally expected to visit Rome during the papal celebration — not including the couture chasers. And that number has likely grown considering that some 250,000 people turned up just to see white smoke rise from the Vatican chimneys in early May.

Consider the fall months a reprieve from all of that hubbub: This is when you can get a prime restaurant reservation without waking up at the crack of dawn exactly three months in advance to book it, and it’s when hotel rates fall in step with the crowds. Plus, the year’s biggest hotel openings — like the Romeo Roma and Orient Express La Minerva — have now had a few months to iron out their kinks. And all of the infrastructure investments meant to support the big events, from a new metro line to renovations at Piazza Navona, have duly removed their scaffolding.

Canary Islands

Canary Islands, Tenerife. (Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS)

Sometimes it’s easy to identify why a destination is buzzing (see above). Other times there’s just something in the air. That’s the case with the sun-smacked, palm-studded Canary Islands, a mountains-and-beach destination where more and more jetsetters in our orbit seem to be going, even though the hotels we were excited about in 2025 have all been mysteriously delayed. Regardless, some 44 new hotels — or 6,000 new rooms — are in the pipeline across this seven-island Spanish archipelago of the western coast of Africa, all scheduled to pop by 2028, so there’s clear reason to believe the trendline is ascendant.

But that growth includes megaprojects that will change the face of their surroundings. Take the latest project in Gran Canaria by the Spain-based Lopesan Group: It consists of a whopping 1,800 rooms across nearly 70 acres. The project is estimated to cost around $787 million. It all points towards a tourism development boom that locals fear is going unchecked. That may make it wise to go now, before it’s spoiled. Bonus: The fall weather here is effectively an extension of everyone else’s summer.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Tim Henderson, Stateline.org

An increasing number of immigrants without legal status — even some who have lived here for decades — are finding it easier to seek opportunities in other countries than to stay in the U.S. amid threats of detention and deportation.

“This has never happened in our country before. We have had periods of voluntary departure, but not self-deportations under pressure like this,” said Muzaffar Chishti, an attorney and policy expert at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

In a June report Chishti wrote for the institute, he said the “self-deportation” strategy by the Trump administration is perhaps an acknowledgement that its goal of 1 million deportations a year “might be impossible through immigration enforcement alone, no matter how muscular.”

Immigration arrests fell in August compared with July and have not been close to a stated administration goal of 3,000 a day.

It’s hard to document how many immigrants might be choosing to leave under pressure from the Trump administration. Thousands have shown a new interest in leaving on social media, in court and through a new government app offering a plane ticket and $1,000 for those without legal immigration status. Trump officials have touted a drop in the immigrant population this year as a sign of success, but researchers say fear of responding to surveys may play a role in the data.

A 22-year-old Oklahoma woman, brought to the U.S. as a child, told Stateline she’s leaving for her native Mexico on a flight this month to start a new life.

Living in Mexico may be hard, but the threat of arrest and detention after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed, giving extra funding for immigration enforcement, was too much for her.

“It’s tough. I’m leaving behind an entire life here, everyone I know, everything I’ve ever known. I speak Spanish, but not the best. My thoughts are in English. I have to readapt to everything,” she said.

“More than anything, I’m tired of being called a criminal here,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified by name, fearing interference with her flight.

“I was in leadership in high school. I was in the marching band. I have a college degree here. I am not a criminal, and this is not OK, what’s happening now,” said the woman, who said her parents brought her at the age of 6 on a tourist visa.

She didn’t qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, because her family took her on trips back to Mexico, she said, returning on new tourist visas.

“I am 22 years old now and undocumented,” she said, “I can’t speak to my parents’ actions. I know there’s issues with legality in that and they made choices that were not favorable. I was a child.”

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Discussions abound on Reddit, an online chat site, about whether to take a government offer to leave or continue to face the threat of arrest and detention if not deportation.

“After over 20 years of living here illegally (I was brought here as a toddler) I think now is finally the time to throw in the towel. I simply do not belong in the US nor am I wanted here,” one man, who said he was born in Mexico, wrote this month in a chat group for Mexican expatriates.

“I’ve worked in construction a large part of my adult life so I have some money saved up, but no career,” he added. “I just feel tired of not being able to do anything meaningful with my life here. I can’t get a driver’s license. I have no hope of ever retiring when I grow old and I can’t even get a real job.”

The Trump administration is using a “potent combination of carrots and sticks” to encourage immigrants without legal status to leave, according to the Migration Policy Institute report. High-profile arrests at workplaces, homes, court hearings and even citizenship interviews have “generated intense nervousness” while poor conditions in detention centers and the threat of removal to unknown countries create “a palpable fear of arrest,” the report stated.

The Department of Homeland Security has a cellphone app — called CBP Home — that offers a plane ticket and $1,000 to “illegal aliens” wishing to leave. The department told Stateline, in a statement attributed only to a senior official, that “tens of thousands of illegal aliens have utilized the CBP Home app” but did not provide further detail.

Thousands more people have accepted voluntary departure rather than fight immigration court cases and take a chance on arrest and detention. The Pew Research Center found that the overall immigrant population dropped from a record 53.3 million in January to 51.9 million in June, though the change could be due partly to a heightened fear of responding to surveys among immigrants.

In another sign of increased appetite for leaving the country, a social media group helping such people decide has seen soaring membership.

The group, Onward, was started by three DACA recipients who moved abroad during the first Trump administration. It has seen 10,000 join requests this year, more than triple the interest it’s had previously in its four years of existence, said Jason Hong, a founding member. Hong was born in South Korea, brought to the U.S. as a child, grew up in New Jersey, and has opted to live in Spain. There, he is a legal resident and has an opportunity for Spanish citizenship. U.S. citizenship wasn’t an option under DACA.

“If I want to shoot for citizenship here, I can,” Hong said. “For the time being I want to focus on helping others who are making the same decision.”

Another Onward founder, Monsy Hernández, left South Carolina during the first Trump administration in 2017, settling in Germany.

“I was very traumatized with the discrimination I faced in the United States when my mom was put into one of the ICE detention centers. I just wanted to go somewhere where no one knew that I was Mexican,” Hernández said. “I thought, OK, if I’m in Germany, I will be very, very far away from that discrimination.”

Widespread departure of immigrants is almost unprecedented in the U.S. history, Chishti said, though there was a large-scale return of Italian immigrants in the 19th century. They were known in Italy as“ritornati”— a wave of farmers and laborers who arrived here when work was scarce in their home country, then returned home with their savings after a few years, when economic conditions in Italy improved.

More recently, some people from Mexico returned home when work dried up during the 2008 Great Recession.

But the current departures under pressure and threats from the U.S. government seems to be unprecedented, Chishti said. In some cases, parents have been pressured to leave the country or face separation from their children.

Voluntary departure is also an option to settle immigration court cases, and more people are taking that route. In those cases, immigrants must pay their own way and can’t have a conviction for a serious crime. Choosing voluntary departure can get immigrants released from detention and avoid a removal order that could cause them to be permanently barred from returning.

According to federal statistics obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by Stateline, 6,118 people were granted voluntary departure between Jan. 20 and July 29, the latest figures available, compared with 2,550 for the same time period last year during the Biden administration. For both years, the majority of cases involved citizens of Mexico returning to Mexico.

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press

School is back in session, bringing new routines — and new milestones for students.

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For some, this is the year they are allowed to go home to an empty house instead of an after-school program or day care. It’s a decision faced by many parents whose work or other obligations keep them from coming home until long past school release time.

With after-school care often expensive and hard to find, parents have reason to encourage independence. But how can they be sure their child is ready to navigate home on their own, even if only for an hour or two?

A handful of states have set age minimums. Maryland law, for example, makes it a crime to leave a child younger than 8 years old unattended.

But most states leave it up to parents and guardians. Experts say between 11 and 13 years old can be a good starting point, but stress there’s more to the equation than age. And they say what’s right for one child may not be for another, even within a family.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all ordeal. And you really have to take it and understand the bigger picture,” said Jaesha Quarrels, director of child care services at Oklahoma Human Services. “Inadequate supervision is a key factor in many preventable childhood injuries and neglect cases.”

Here’s what experts say to consider when deciding whether a child is ready to be home alone:

Consider maturity and skills in addition to age

The American Academy of Pediatrics says most children are not ready to handle emergencies until about age 11 or 12, so the organization generally recommends structured supervision until then.

But it’s not that simple.

Parents often want a specific answer on how old their kids have to be, but age is only one of the factors to consider, said Brian Tessmer, director of treatment and operations at Family Resources, a nonprofit agency in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“We really strongly encourage parents to look at many other factors because kids, obviously mature at different rates.”

At minimum, children should be able to recite their full name, home address, phone number and the name of a parent, guardian or other emergency contact. They should also know how to reach that person, experts advise.

Other things to consider are whether a child can follow rules, handle routines and keep themselves occupied with homework, toys or electronic devices.

Can they dial the phone? Fix themselves a snack? Do they know where the bandages are if they need one? What if there’s a tornado warning, if they smell something burning or if a carbon monoxide detector goes off? Do they know how and when to dial 911?

They can do it. Do they want to?

Even having all that knowledge doesn’t mean a child is ready to get off the school bus at an unoccupied house, experts said. At a time of high anxiety for American children, there is also emotional readiness to consider.

“Oftentimes as parents, because it’s convenient — we’re busy, we have things that we have to do — we just kind of leave them alone,” Quarrels said. “But we need to consider how the child feels. Are they confident? Can they handle loneliness, fear or boredom?”

Communication is key, Tessmer said.

“It’s a great opportunity to explain to the child that this is a milestone that we’re coming up to as a family, and we’re exploring this opportunity because we do feel like you are getting to a point where you’re ready for this type of trust. We have confidence in you,” he said.

A child home alone should have no doubts about what they’re allowed to do, and even more importantly, not allowed to do, experts said.

Stoves and ovens should be off limits, as well as matches, candles and lighters. Children should be instructed to stay inside, not open the door to anyone unless they’ve been told in advance, and to never reveal that they’re alone on social media, gaming apps or to callers.

“Make sure your house rules are visible and reviewed frequently,” said Quarrels, who recommended having prepackaged snacks or meals handy.

Practice, start slowly and take advantage of technology

To further reduce anxiety, Quarrels recommends role-playing scenarios like handling a doorbell and dialing 911.

And start small, she said. Parents can test the waters by leaving a child inside while they’re in the backyard or taking a walk around the block, she said.

Smartphones and the availability of home security systems that enable real-time monitoring and communication can also put children, and parents, at ease.

“Always check in on a regular basis with your child if you’re going to be gone longer than 15 to 30 minutes,” Tessmer said. “Fortunately, in this age with cellphones and tablets it can be pretty easy. You can have your kids text, you can schedule a quick call, Facetime, send photos to each other to ease any anxieties.”

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