Police picked him up at 10 for walking home alone. At 21, he says free-range parenting gave him freedom.

In 2015, Danielle Meitiv (left) let her son Rafi (right) walk home alone with his sister, Dvora.

The kids were stopped by the police, and the family was investigated by CPS.

Caroline Gutman for BI Bundled in heavy coats, hats, scarves, and mittens, Rafi Meitiv and his little sister Dvora had just spent a sunny Saturday afternoon in December 2014 playing at a local playground in suburban Maryland.

After an hour, the 10- and 6-year-olds began their trek home , about three-quarters of a mile.

While it was their first time walking from that particular park to their house alone, they'd traced the same route in Silver Spring dozens of times with their parents and had also ventured off alone to other playgrounds in the area before.

About halfway through their journey, they were stopped by three police officers, who instructed them to get in their car so they could drive them home and speak to their parents.

Rafi and Dvora were confused.

"At this point, we knew how to obviously use crosswalks, walk the street safely," Rafi, now 21, told Business Insider in his first time speaking out about this incident in over a decade.

"We had our parents' phone numbers.

We knew how to take care of ourselves." The incident led to a six-month investigation into potential child neglect by Child Protective Services , followed by another, more harrowing run-in with CPS and the police.

Rafi and Dvora's parents, Alexander and Danielle Meitiv, fought back, appearing on TV news programs, including "Today" and "Good Morning America." They were eventually cleared of "unsubstantiated child abuse or neglect" — a legal limbo meaning that CPS could neither find enough evidence to prove nor fully rule out neglect — in June 2015.

The Maryland Department of Human Services told Business Insider in a comment that it's "committed to transparency and being as open as possible while maintaining the confidentiality of children and their families, as protected by law." Alexander Meitiv, right, prepares dinner with Rafi (left) and Dvora (center) in 2015.

Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images The Meitivs' story isn't unique.

In August 2026, Karyann Parkinson , a mom of five from Virginia, was convicted of "contributing to the delinquency of a minor" after allowing her 5-year-old son to walk half a mile alone within their gated community.