Florida mom leaving 4 kids home alone was classic neglect but state laws are a recipe for disaster: legal experts

The Florida mom who allegedly “abandoned” her four kids at home for a five-day Las Vegas excursion faces up to 20 years behind bars and potentially even more legal consequences — even though there are no hard and fast laws in the Sunshine State for leaving kids unsupervised, experts say. Irene Miller, 50, was slapped with four counts of third-degree felony child endangerment without bodily harm after her unattended kids — aged 9, 11, 12, and 14 — called 911 when the youngest was injured by a dumbbell in their Kissimmee home last week, according to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office. The photographer mom, who was working across the country at the time, later told deputies that a babysitter checked in on the kids before and after school every day she was away.Although Florida law does not specify the age in which a child can be left alone, a Miami-based family lawyer told The Post that Miller’s decision was a “recipe for disaster.”“You obviously can’t be leaving four young children alone for hours and overnight for days on end … that is classis neglect,” Evan Marks said. “Those children were definitely abandoned … and the state has an interest in making sure that those kinds of circumstances do not happen — because they’re a recipe for disaster,” he added. The charges against Miller — she was arrested on Friday — technically arise from a Florida statute that “stems from a caregiver’s willful failure or omission to provide necessary care, supervision, food, shelter, or medical services, or failure to protect a child from harm,” family lawyer John Lambros said. Federal guidelines, meanwhile, say kids should not be left alone under the age of 12 — and children under 15 should not be left to supervise younger siblings. Not only does each count against her carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison, the state Department of Children and Families will “undoubtedly” do a deep dive into the overall “welfare o...