Ada County, ID Curfew Laws: Juvenile Curfew (2026)

Ada County Code 5-5-1(C), part of the county's delinquent children chapter, sets the unincorporated area's juvenile curfew. It makes it unlawful for any person under 18 to be or remain in or upon any street, alley, public ground, public place, or any place open to the public or exposed to public use within Ada County between midnight and 5:00 AM. The same subsection also makes it unlawful for a parent, guardian, or other person having care and custody of a minor to permit that minor to be out during those hours, so liability reaches the adult as well as the minor.

Subsection C2 lists four exceptions: a minor accompanied by a parent, guardian, or other adult with care and custody; a minor running an errand or performing a duty directed by that parent or guardian; a minor actually engaged in legitimate employment for profit at the time; and a minor attending or participating in an officially sanctioned school activity. The curfew sits alongside two related provisions in the same section: subsection A makes it unlawful for a minor to run away from a parent or guardian, and subsection B allows a peace officer to take an uncontrollable minor into custody if the officer believes the minor's continued liberty poses an imminent danger, with the evidence of that danger required to go before a court on the next judicial day.

Subsection E sets the penalty for any violation of section 5-5-1, including the curfew, at imprisonment in the Ada County jail for up to 6 months, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. The section traces to Ordinance 46-1-80 from 1980, was carried into the 1984 code, and was last amended by Ordinance 629 in 2006.