I hesitate to think it would in the US, either. For all of the concerns of "in my day this, but today, that," the ultimate goal of child services is the welfare of the child, and no one's going to think that locking a parent up for their children playing in a residential street is what's best for the kid.
This story is even more ridiculous since in the metro DC area (inc Silver Spring), public buses are pretty much the schoolbuses and it is an everyday thing to see groups of kids ~5y and up taking public transit all across town for school...
They won't think that, but the problem is they have to enforce laws as written which often don't have exceptions. And those who have to enforce the law have much more to lose by applying judgement than following the rules as written. Zero tolerance policies make it worse because they eliminate all judgement.
