Sound Policy and Practice Recommendations
Key Definitions
It is important for any agency drafting or implementing policies for responding to a missing child to avoid overly complicated or overly restrictive definitions. Care should be taken to ensure that each term and definition encourages an immediate response, applying all appropriate resources. No definition should ever provide a justification for delay or inaction when a child goes missing, and no definition should be so restrictive that it prevents a necessary service from being offered to a child victim.
Definition of Missing Child
Federal law (34 U.S.C. § 11292) defines a “missing child” as “any individual less than 18 years of age whose whereabouts are unknown to such individual’s parent” or legal guardian. It is important to note this includes children who may have been abducted by family or a non-family member, wrongfully taken or retained by a person related to them, wandered away from a safe environment and become lost, been displaced by disaster, run away from a home, foster home, or state care facility, or otherwise have gone missing for any reason at all. In some jurisdictions, state law expands on the broad federal definition and provides further statutory guidance on how agencies should treat missing child cases in their state.
Missing vs. Unapproved or Unauthorized Placement
If a child leaves a placement without authorization but the child welfare agency or caregiver knows the current whereabouts of the child (e.g., the child is verified to be attending school or their place of employment), then the child is NOT considered missing. There may be other scenarios in which the child does not fall under the federal definition of missing that will be examined on a case-by-case basis.
Reporting Requirements
The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, (P.L. 113-183; 42 U.S.C. § 671(a)(35)(B)) includes a mandate that State agencies “report immediately, and in no case later than 24 hours” information about each missing or abducted child both to law enforcement and to NCMEC. Existing federal law requires law enforcement agencies to respond in a specific way, regardless of the reason why a child is missing.
The Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022 (P.L. 117-348) includes language regarding sharing information with NCMEC and maintaining regular communication with law enforcement agencies and NCMEC through the child’s recovery. It specifically states that the “State agency shall maintain regular communication with law enforcement agencies and NCMEC in efforts to provide a safe recovery of a missing or abducted child or youth, including by sharing information pertaining to the child’s or youth’s recovery and circumstances related to the recovery, and that the State report submitted to law enforcement agencies and NCMEC shall include where reasonably possible: