There's no laws about leaving them at home alone.
That being said, there have been lots of horror stories of other adults calling the cops out of concern for child "neglect." And this creates a huge hassle for the parents. Try to figure out our neighborhood's feelings on the topic, and obviously look into the Free Range Kids movement for resources.
After being taken out of school, there weren’t any actual problems. My parents let me spend the day programming and biking, and deal with the standardized tests myself. It was one of their best parenting decisions.
I don’t have autism.
Lately I’m letting my daughter try home schooling, after they started doing six hours a day of Zoom meetings. It’s not going as well, but I think the main thing is she knows I’m on her side.
So basically a normal childhood? Just wondering, because as a European I find this whole discussion enlightening (learning something new) and bizarre at the same time. Heck, our kids are picking up groceries and bread at the two shops near by every week-end. Which is great, because it means us parents can sleep in longer. Just thinking about someone calling CPS or the cops for that, I think they would be laughed out. At least I hope that cops would even refuse to show up in such cases, because honestly, if the caller sounds worried enough they just could.
That being said, we have a community youth center and sports / playground right across the street. There, kids and teenagers of all sorts are hanging out well into the night. I just wished I could motivate my elder son to do so as well, because that would be so much better than spending his time indoors. There is only so much screen time limiting you can do.
But the easiest is to just move to somewhere where people aren't as freaked out.