The parents of two children, ages 10 and 6, who were arrested twice for allowing their kids to walk home alone from a park in Maryland have been cleared in both cases of "neglect," according to the Washington Post:

Maryland’s “free range” parents were cleared in the second of two neglect cases, closing a chapter in their widely chronicled struggle with authorities that began when they allowed their two young children to walk home alone from community parks.

Danielle Meitiv said Sunday night that she and her husband Alexander received the decision in a letter from Child Protective Services June 13 as they were about to leave for vacation. Child Protective Services officials have said in the past that they could not comment on such matters on grounds of confidentiality.

The CPS finding came two months after their young children - ages 10 and 6 - were most recently picked up by police as they made their way home alone from a park in Silver Spring.

“I’m just relieved to have these cases closed,” Danielle Meitiv said in an interview. “They’ve been hanging over our heads and it’s been very trying for our family.”

You have to wonder how many of these cases go unreported around the country.  Children's services departments in every state I've read about are dysfunctional, but it's not all their fault.  The caseload is far beyond the abillity of most departments to deal with adequately, not to mention intelligently and compassionately.  But there is far too much overreaction on the part of these departments, and this can be dealt with by writing intelligent guidelines that take into account different styles of parenting. 

The Meitivs are lucky their case was publicized.  Otherwise, they could have easily lost their children to a broken system.