May 6, 2026 | Child Safety, Missing Children
Key Takeaways
- Call 911 immediately. There is no waiting period to report a missing child, and the first 24 hours are crucial.
- Get help fast. Contact law enforcement right away, then reach out to trusted resources like the Polly Klaas Foundation and NCMEC.
- Stay organized. Gather a recent photo, key identifying details, and a clear timeline of when and where your child was last seen.
- Share carefully. Focus on accurate information, official tip lines, and coordinated outreach rather than panic-driven posts or rumors.
Every parent’s worst fear can happen in an instant — a child who was just there is suddenly gone. Whether your child failed to come home from school, disappeared from a playground, or vanished in a crowded store, the first 24 hours are critical. Acting quickly and strategically can make all the difference.
Here’s exactly what to do.
Call 911 Immediately — Don’t Wait
One of the most dangerous myths in the United States is that you must wait 24 hours before reporting a missing child. This is completely false. Law enforcement can and must take a missing child report right away, regardless of the child’s age or how recently they were last seen.
When you call 911, be ready to provide:
- The child’s full name, age, height, weight, and physical description (including unique identifiers such as braces, glasses, scars, or piercings)
- What they were wearing when last seen
- Any known medical conditions or medications
- Names of friends, classmates, or adults they may have contacted
- Recent photos, ideally taken within the last 30 days
Do not hang up until the dispatcher tells you to. Write down the name of every officer you speak with and the report number you’re assigned.
Search Fast, but Stay Focused
Before or while help is arriving, do a quick, targeted search of places where a child could be hiding or trapped. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) recommends checking closets, piles of laundry, under beds, inside large appliances, and vehicles, including trunks. If your child disappeared in a store or public place, notify security immediately as well.
This is also the time to gather the basics law enforcement will need:
- A recent photo of your child
- A description of what your child was wearing
- Information about any medical needs, mental health concerns, or other urgent risk factors
Keep a notebook by the phone so you can record every call, tip, name, and update. In a crisis, that kind of written record can make a real difference.
Contact the Polly Klaas Foundation, NCMEC, and Your State Clearinghouse
The Polly Klaas Foundation has spent more than three decades helping families navigate exactly this nightmare. We provide free, hands-on support to families of missing children — from coordinating volunteer searches to providing guidance on working with media and law enforcement. We also maintain a searchable missing children database and can help amplify your child’s case across social media and community networks.
In a crisis, having an experienced advocate in your corner is invaluable. Report your child missing online here, or call our 24/7 hotline at 800-587-4357.
For additional support and coverage, you can also contact:
- NCMEC at 800-843-5678
- Your State Clearinghouse
Start Building a Timeline
One of the most useful things you can do on the first day is write down a clear timeline. List when your child was last seen, who saw them, what happened beforehand, and anything unusual from the last 24 to 48 hours. That includes messages, social media activity, arguments, schedule changes, transportation plans, or unfamiliar contacts.
We also recommend searching your child’s room, phone, computer, school locker, and other personal spaces for phone numbers, addresses, online contacts, and clues about where they may have gone. Contact friends, schools, hospitals, and other places tied to your child’s recent routine.
This kind of information can help investigators act quickly and rule out bad leads.
Share Information Carefully
Families often want to post everywhere online immediately. That instinct is understandable, but it helps to coordinate with law enforcement and trusted organizations first. The Polly Klaas Foundation provides flyer support and volunteer-based rapid response efforts.
A good rule is to share accurate, up-to-date information, including a recent photo and official contact details for tips. Avoid spreading rumors or posting unverified claims. Clear information is more useful than a flood of panic.
Do Not Assume the Situation Will Resolve on Its Own
Even if you think your child may have run away, experts say you should still report the disappearance immediately. Runaway cases still belong in the missing persons system without delay.
A child who is missing, regardless of the circumstances, may still face serious risks.
Where to Turn for Help
In the first 24 hours after a child goes missing, your priorities are straightforward: call the police, gather details, contact child safety organizations for support, and document everything. These steps can help law enforcement and support a quick and effective community response.The Polly Klaas Foundation is a national nonprofit dedicated to the safety of all children, the recovery of missing children, and public policies that keep children safe in their communities. Based in Petaluma, California, we provide a variety of programs and services to support child safety from all angles. We’ve helped over 10,000 families find their missing children — but there is always more to be done. Donate today to help reunite families and keep children safe across the nation.
Mar 19, 2026 | Child Safety, Volunteering
Most of us want to do more for our communities. We just don’t always know where to start, or we tell ourselves we don’t have enough time, enough expertise, or enough to offer. If that sounds familiar, child safety volunteering might be exactly what you’ve been looking for.
You don’t need a background in law enforcement or social work. You don’t need to make a full-time commitment. What you do need is a willingness to show up for families who are going through some of the worst days of their lives. It turns out that’s more than enough.
Volunteering for child safety organizations isn’t just a feel-good gesture. It’s a concrete, measurable act that changes outcomes for real families in crisis. Whether you have an afternoon once a month or a standing weekly commitment, the work you do as a volunteer has a tangible impact on your community and yourself.
Here’s a closer look at the importance of community service and how you can support child safety in your community.
Why Child Safety Volunteering Matters More Than Ever
The landscape of child safety has grown more complicated in recent years. Online predators, social media exploitation, and tech-savvy trafficking networks have created new threats that even the most attentive parents can struggle to navigate. Furthermore, nonprofit organizations working in this space are often stretched thin, facing funding and staffing challenges that have plagued the nonprofit sector of late.
That’s where volunteers come in.
When you give your time to a child safety cause, you’re freeing up staff resources so case workers can focus on active missing children cases. You’re helping distribute safety information that keeps kids out of danger in the first place. You’re showing up for families who have nowhere else to turn.
The Benefits of Volunteering for You and Your Community
Volunteering is good for you, too. Research has consistently linked regular volunteer work to a range of personal benefits that go well beyond the warm feeling of doing something good. And when those individual contributions multiply across a community, the effects become even more significant.
The personal benefits of community service include:
- Reduced stress, anxiety, and depression: Studies have found that people who volunteer regularly report lower levels of anxiety and depression than those who don’t. Helping others activates the brain’s reward pathways, producing a neurological response to acts of generosity.
- A deeper sense of purpose: Particularly for retirees, caregivers, or people navigating major life transitions, volunteering offers structure, meaning, and a reason to engage with the world. Having a role that matters to others is a powerful antidote to isolation.
- Skill-building: Whether you’re learning how to coordinate logistics, speak publicly at a community event, or manage relationships under pressure, volunteer work builds transferable skills that have value in every area of life.
- Social growth: Volunteering connects you with people you’d never meet otherwise, across generations, backgrounds, and life experiences. Those relationships expand your perspective and bring you closer to your community.
And for your community, the benefits are just as real: Communities with strong volunteer networks can respond faster to crises, maintain better-resourced nonprofits, and build the kind of social trust that makes neighborhoods genuinely safer. When people know each other, watch out for each other, and invest in local organizations, everyone benefits.
When it comes to child safety specifically, here’s what consistent volunteer support accomplishes:
- Faster missing child responses: Trained volunteers extend the reach of rapid response teams, helping distribute flyers, canvass neighborhoods, and spread word through local networks within hours of a child going missing.
- Wider safety education: Volunteers who table at community events and drop materials at local businesses ensure that child safety resources reach parents who might never find them otherwise.
- Stronger organizational capacity: Every hour a volunteer contributes to mailings, event support, or outreach is an hour a skilled nonprofit staff member can redirect toward essential services.
- Deeper community connections: Volunteering builds relationships across neighborhoods, age groups, and backgrounds, strengthening the connective tissue that makes communities resilient.
How to Volunteer for Child Safety With the Polly Klaas Foundation
The Polly Klaas Foundation was established after the 1993 abduction and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma, California — a case that galvanized national attention around the issue of missing and exploited children. In the three decades since, our foundation has grown into one of the country’s most respected child safety nonprofits, operating a 24/7 hotline, supporting families of missing children, providing resources for law enforcement and educators, and advocating for protective legislation.
If you’d like to support our work, there are several meaningful ways to get involved, whether you’re in the greater Petaluma area or located elsewhere in the country. Opportunities include:
- Rapid response team: Join a network of volunteers who mobilize quickly when a child goes missing, distributing posters in their community to bolster search-and-awareness efforts during the critical early hours of a case.
- Show usher/ticket support: Support our community theater events, which serve as both fundraisers and awareness-building platforms for child safety issues.
- Mailings: Help prepare and send materials that reach families, schools, and community organizations across the region.
- Dropping flyers to local businesses: Get out into your community and make sure local shops, restaurants, and gathering places have access to child safety resources.
- Tabling at community events: Represent the foundation at local festivals, fairs, and public gatherings, connecting with parents and caregivers and distributing information about keeping kids safe.
No prior experience in child safety or advocacy is required for most roles. What matters is showing up, following through, and caring about the outcome.
Taking the First Step
If you’ve thought about getting more involved in your community but weren’t sure where your time would actually make a difference, child safety volunteering offers a clear answer. The need is real, the organizations doing this work are accountable and mission-driven, and the impact is tangible.
The Polly Klaas Foundation makes it easy to get started. Visit our Volunteer Opportunities page to fill out a brief interest form and indicate how you’d like to help. You can also reach our team directly at 800-587-4357.
Families in crisis don’t need sympathy from a distance. They need people willing to show up. That person can be you.
The Polly Klaas Foundation is a national nonprofit dedicated to the safety of all children, the recovery of missing children, and public policies that keep children safe in their communities. Based in Petaluma, California, we provide a variety of programs and services to support child safety from all angles. We’ve helped over 10,000 families find their missing children — but there is always more to be done. Donate today to help reunite families and keep children safe across the nation.
Feb 18, 2026 | Child Safety
Travel opens up a world of adventure for families, but it also presents unique safety challenges that require careful planning and awareness. Whether you’re navigating a crowded airport terminal, checking into an unfamiliar hotel, or riding public transportation in a new city, keeping children safe demands vigilance and preparation.
Thankfully, a few practical habits can lower risk dramatically. In this article, we’ll cover key strategies for ensuring child safety during travel. We’ll explore child safety measures in three high-traffic settings: airports, hotels, and public transit.
General Travel Safety Tips for Families With Children
Travel combines crowds, fatigue, unfamiliar environments, and schedule pressure. That mix makes it easier for children to become separated from caregivers and harder for adults to notice risks quickly.
It is also important to keep risk in perspective. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children notes that nonfamily abductions are rare among missing-child cases. Still, rare is not the same as impossible, and prevention skills matter.
A practical travel safety approach focuses on three goals:
- Prevent separation
- Prepare children to respond if separation happens
- Reduce avoidable injury risks in new environments
Teach children their full name, your phone number, and how to identify trustworthy adults in public spaces. These skills prove especially critical in transportation hubs where confusion runs high.
Remember, proactive planning is the best defense. Before you even leave home, update your child’s identification materials. The Polly Klaas Foundation’s free Child Safety Kit provides families with comprehensive resources to maintain current photos, fingerprints, and vital information about their children. This kit becomes invaluable if the unthinkable happens during travel.
Airport Safety Tips for Families Traveling With Kids
Airports are designed for efficiency, not necessarily for families with small children. Between TSA checkpoints and the rush to the gate, it can be easy for a child to wander off.
At the airport, establish clear meeting points with older children in case of separation. Choose specific, memorable locations such as a particular gate or the information desk rather than vague areas. For younger children, consider temporary tattoos with your contact number or use identification bracelets.
Practice these airport safety measures:
- Dress children in bright, easily identifiable clothing
- Take a photo of your child each morning of travel in their current outfit
- Maintain physical contact in crowded areas through hand-holding or child carriers
- Review stranger danger concepts, emphasizing that children should approach uniformed airport staff if lost
Hotel Safety for Children: Securing Your Home Away From Home
Hotels introduce risks that don’t exist in your childproofed home. Upon checking in, conduct a thorough safety assessment of your room. Check window locks, balcony access, and electrical outlets.
Never leave children unattended in hotel rooms, even briefly. Unsupervised children in hotels face elevated risks from fire, drowning in bathtubs, and accidental poisoning from cleaning supplies or minibar items. Additionally, it only takes a few seconds for a child to open a door and wander into a hallway or elevator.
Teach children never to open the hotel room door without adult permission. Use all available locks, including deadbolts and chain locks. Some families use portable door alarms for added security.
Public Transit and Rideshare Safety With Children
Public transit is often the most practical and affordable way to move through cities while traveling. It can also be crowded and fast-moving, especially during rush periods. Keep these public transit safety essentials in mind when embarking on your next trip.
Platform and Boarding Rules That Reduce Risk
- Stand back from platform edges.
- Board together as one unit, not one person at a time.
- If doors close unexpectedly, teach children to wait with transit staff, not run after a moving train or bus.
- Choose meeting landmarks in advance at major stations.
Onboard Safety Habits
- Keep children seated when possible.
- Avoid aisle-end seating for small children on crowded vehicles.
- Keep bags zipped and close to reduce distraction.
- Use verbal check-ins before every stop.
Rental Car and Rideshare Safety
If your trip involves taxis, rideshares, or rental vehicles, proper child restraints still matter. Car seat safety should never be compromised just because you are in a vehicle that’s not yours. Always bring a travel-certified booster or car seat. Furthermore, when using a rideshare app, always verify the driver’s identity and the vehicle’s license plate against the app before allowing your child to enter the car.
The Most Effective Travel Safety Tool Is Practice
Children remember what they rehearse. Before a trip, practice short “what if” scenarios:
- What if we get separated at the airport?
- What if someone asks you to come with them?
- What if you can’t find me at the station?
Role-play works best when it is calm, brief, and repeated.
This is exactly where the Polly Klaas Foundation’s free Child Safety Kit is useful. Our kit includes age-appropriate prevention guidance and practical tools families can use to prepare children for real-world situations at home and while traveling. If you’re building a family travel safety plan this season, download it and review it together before your next trip. Then, keep it easily accessible during travel so you have immediate access to your child’s information if an emergency occurs.
Travel is one of the most enriching experiences a child can have. By taking these small, deliberate steps, you ensure that the journey remains safe, secure, and focused on the joy of exploration.
About the Polly Klaas Foundation
The Polly Klaas Foundation is a national nonprofit dedicated to the safety of all children, the recovery of missing children, and public policies that keep children safe in their communities. Based in Petaluma, California, we provide a variety of programs and services to support child safety from all angles. We’ve helped over 10,000 families find their missing children — but there is always more to be done. Donate today to help reunite families and keep children safe across the nation.
Oct 8, 2025 | Child Safety
Safety awareness is crucial to instill in your children, but teaching kids about safety can be a fine line to walk. You want your child to understand the risks without making them fearful of the world around them. How do you strike that balance?
In this article, we’ll explore how parents and caregivers can help children build confidence, trust their instincts, and make safe choices when interacting with others.
Why Teaching Stranger Safety Matters
Children are naturally curious and trusting, qualities that make them vulnerable to exploitation. While most strangers are not dangerous, it’s important for kids to understand how to recognize potentially unsafe situations and respond appropriately. By focusing on empowerment rather than fear, you give your child the tools to stay safe while still encouraging healthy social development.
Focus on “Tricky People,” Not Just Strangers
One of the biggest challenges with the traditional “stranger danger” message is that it can be confusing. Children often think strangers look scary or bad, when in reality, unsafe individuals may appear friendly or familiar.
Instead of telling kids to avoid all strangers, many child safety experts recommend teaching them to be cautious of “tricky people.” These are individuals — whether known or unknown — who ask kids to break safety rules, keep secrets from parents, or do something that feels wrong. This approach shifts the focus from labeling people as good or bad to recognizing behaviors that signal potential danger.
Keep the Message Age-Appropriate
Children absorb information differently at various stages of development. Tailoring your message to your child’s age helps them understand safety concepts without overwhelming them.
- Preschoolers: Teach simple rules like “Don’t go anywhere without telling a parent” or “Only adults you trust can help you.”
- Elementary school kids: Discuss scenarios such as being approached at the park or asked for help by someone they don’t know. Practice responses like saying no firmly and seeking out a safe adult.
- Preteens and teens: Cover more nuanced issues, including online safety, peer pressure, and recognizing unsafe situations at school, in the community, or online.
By layering information gradually, you give kids confidence without instilling unnecessary fear.
Make Safety Lessons Part of Everyday Life
Children learn best through repetition and practice. You don’t need to set aside a formal lesson time; instead, weave safety conversations into daily life. For example:
- Role-play what to do if someone offers them a ride.
- Practice saying no loudly and clearly.
- Walk through safe routes home or to school together.
- Reinforce that it’s always OK to ask questions if something feels off.
These everyday interactions make safety awareness natural and manageable.
Encourage Open Communication
One of the most powerful ways to protect your child is by fostering open communication. Make sure your child knows they can talk to you about anything, even if it seems small or embarrassing. Reinforce that they won’t get in trouble for telling the truth about a situation that made them uncomfortable. This openness helps you catch red flags early and strengthens your child’s trust in you as their safe person.
Use Tools That Reinforce Safety
When it comes to teaching your child, you’re not alone. There are plenty of trustworthy and accessible resources out there to help you — such as our free Child Safety Kits from the Polly Klaas Foundation! These kits can help you start and sustain safety conversations, providing families with practical tools, including safety tips, checklists, and fingerprint records.
Champion Child Safety With the Polly Klaas Foundation
Teaching kids about stranger danger doesn’t mean teaching them to fear the world. By focusing on age-appropriate lessons, teaching them to spot “tricky people,” and using resources that support open communication, you give your child the skills they need to feel safe and strong.
The Polly Klaas Foundation is dedicated to protecting children and supporting families with free resources, including our free Child Safety Kits. By equipping guardians, educators, lawmakers, and more with knowledge and tools, we help communities raise confident kids who know how to stay safe.
The Polly Klaas Foundation is a national nonprofit dedicated to the safety of all children, the recovery of missing children, and public policies that keep children safe in their communities. Based in Petaluma, California, we provide a variety of programs and services to support child safety from all angles. We’ve helped over 10,000 families find their missing children — but there is always more to be done. Donate today to help reunite families and keep children safe across the nation.
Sep 10, 2025 | Child Safety
Spotting grooming early can stop abuse before it starts. Predators often use calculated steps — online and offline — to break down boundaries, isolate children, and normalize secrecy. This guide explains common signs of grooming and what parents and caregivers can do to protect their children and community.
The Polly Klaas Foundation offers prevention tips, family support, and tools to help you talk with kids about boundaries. Start with our free Child Safety Kit, which helps families organize essential information and start age-appropriate safety conversations.
What Is Grooming?
Grooming is a pattern of behaviors used by offenders to gain access to a child, build trust, and reduce the likelihood the child will tell. It can happen in person and through gaming platforms, social media, or messaging apps. Language may start out friendly (compliments, shared “interests”), then slowly move toward privacy, secrecy, and sexualization. Because grooming often looks like kindness at first, recognizing the warning signs is essential for child safety.
Red Flags: Signs of Grooming to Watch For
Because red flags can be subtle, it helps to scan for patterns across settings. Below are signs of grooming that commonly appear. Use them as a sounding board when something feels off.
- Excessive flattery and attention: Daily DMs and constant compliments, such as “you’re so mature for your age.”
- Gifts and special favors: Digital currency, gaming skins, rides, or pricey items with strings attached.
- Secrecy: Frequent “delete our chat” requests, using vanishing messages, or pressure to hide conversations.
- Boundary pushing: Jokes about age difference, “accidental” touching, or testing rules to see what they can get away with.
- Platform hopping: Moving from a public app to private, encrypted platforms; late-night chats become the norm.
- Requests for personal images or info: Asking for photos, where your child lives, their school, or their schedule.
- Jealousy and control: “Don’t talk to other people,” guilt trips, or threats to share private information.
- Age misrepresentation: Lying about age, hiding identity, or refusing video calls “because my camera is broken.”
If you’re seeing several of these grooming behaviors, slow down, document what’s happening, and increase supervision.
The Stages Predators Often Use
Understanding the typical arc of grooming can help you identify problems sooner. While not every case follows the same path, many include these steps:
- Targeting and access: The predator notices a child’s vulnerabilities — loneliness, low supervision, or online oversharing — then finds ways to connect (DMs, friend-of-a-friend, youth spaces).
- Trust-building: Shared hobbies, gifts, rides, or help with homework create a sense of loyalty. The person may be unusually attentive or available.
- Filling a need: The child is told, “I get you like no one else,” while the adult positions themselves as a problem-solver or mentor.
- Isolation: The predator encourages the use of private chats, moving to encrypted apps, or spending one-on-one time away from caregivers.
- Secrecy and tests: The adult says things such as “Don’t tell your parents; they won’t understand.” Small rule-breaking is normalized to gauge if the child will keep secrets.
- Sexualization and control: The conversation shifts to sexual topics, requests for images, or coercion; threats or guilt may follow to keep the child silent.
What to Do if You Suspect Grooming
Swift, steady action matters. Here’s a practical plan:
- Pause, don’t panic: Stay calm so your child keeps talking. Thank them for telling you.
- Preserve evidence: Take screenshots of messages, usernames, dates, and any requests for secrecy or images. Do not delete chats.
- Tighten privacy: Change passwords, enable two-factor authentication, and adjust platform settings to limit contact.
- Report: Use the platform’s reporting tools and file a report with appropriate authorities (for online exploitation, you can report to the national cyber tipline). Your local law enforcement agency can advise next steps.
- Get support: Contact school counselors or a child advocacy center if you need professional guidance.
Predators count on confusion, shame, and silence. Your steady presence — and a plan — breaks that cycle. Bookmark this page, share it with other caregivers, and keep the Polly Klaas Foundation on your shortlist for child safety resources. Remember, when you trust your instincts and act early, you give children exactly what they need: safety, clarity, and a caring adult who believes them.
The Polly Klaas Foundation is a national nonprofit dedicated to the safety of all children, the recovery of missing children, and public policies that keep children safe in their communities. Based in Petaluma, California, we provide a variety of programs and services to support child safety from all angles. We’ve helped over 10,000 families find their missing children — but there is always more to be done. Donate today to help reunite families and keep children safe across the nation.
Aug 6, 2025 | Child Safety, Missing Children
The buzz of a late-night notification, the sudden flash of text across a highway sign — an AMBER Alert cuts through daily routines with one purpose: enlist the public in finding an abducted child. In this article, we’ll unpack the process from police report to public broadcast, explain the technology behind those unmistakable tones, and offer practical steps for responding responsibly.
What Is an AMBER Alert?
The AMBER Alert program — named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas, in 1996 — stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. It mobilizes law enforcement, broadcasters, state transportation agencies, and mobile carriers to spread time-sensitive information on serious child abduction cases across every available channel, including:
- Radio and television cut-ins
- Electronic highway signs
- Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) to smartphones
- Social media amplification through official accounts and, increasingly, private platforms
The goal is simple: Place as many eyes as possible on the lookout in the critical first hours after a child disappears.
How a Case Qualifies
AMBER Alerts are not issued for every missing child report. To avoid public desensitization and ensure clarity, each state or tribal plan follows strict federal benchmarks:
- Law enforcement confirms an abduction.
- The child is 17 or younger and in imminent danger of serious injury or death.
- Investigators have enough descriptive information about the victim, suspect, or vehicle to share with the public.
- The alert is entered into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
Because these alerts are disruptive by design, federal guidelines urge activation only when lives are clearly at risk. That restraint combats complacency and helps keep response rates high.
AMBER Alert Technology: How Notifications Go Out
WEA
Since 2012, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System has delivered AMBER messages directly to cellphones in a target area. Those chirps are impossible to mute when the alert first hits — an intentional design to break through distractions. As of Dec. 31, 2024, the AMBER Alert system has led to the successful recovery of 1,268 children, with 226 of these cases due to WEA.
Highway Signs and Broadcasters
State departments of transportation flash suspect vehicle details across electronic road signs. Simultaneously, radio and TV stations interrupt programming with the Emergency Alert System tone, announcing the same information viewers receive on their phones.
Social Media Integration
Extraordinary reach now comes from private sector partnerships in the social media space. Facebook integrated AMBER Alerts nationwide in 2015, and in March 2025, TikTok rolled out in-app alerts after a pilot generated more than 20 million views in Texas alone, proving short-form video’s power to drive leads quickly.
What to Do When You Receive an AMBER Alert
Here’s a quick checklist for responding to an alert:
- Read the entire message: Confirm the child’s description, last known location, and any vehicle details.
- Don’t silence and forget: Keep the alert in mind while traveling or scrolling local news updates for photo releases.
- Look, don’t chase: If you spot the child, suspect, or vehicle, call 911 immediately. Don’t intervene; trained officers will act.
- Share selectively: Post only official information from law enforcement, state AMBER pages, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Screenshots cut out crucial context; link to the source instead.
- Stay observant for 24 hours: Many recoveries happen long after the initial blast as suspects move between jurisdictions.
Going Beyond the Alert: How to Help Children in Your Community
Even when your phone is quiet, you can make a difference:
- Sign up for local missing child bulletins through state police or NCMEC websites.
- Promote safety in person and online by educating children on trusted adult plans, safe routes home, and more.
- Host a community ID event with fingerprint kits and updated photos — simple steps that accelerate investigations. Download a free Child Safety Kit from the Polly Klaas Foundation.
- Donate or volunteer with child safety nonprofits that support families during and after crises. Join our Rapid Response Team to aid in the recovery of missing children in your community!
Help Keep Kids Safe: Support the Polly Klaas Foundation
The Polly Klaas Foundation is a national nonprofit dedicated to the safety of all children, the recovery of missing children, and public policies that keep children safe in their communities. Based in Petaluma, California, we provide a variety of programs and services to support child safety from all angles. We’ve helped over 10,000 families find their missing children — but there is always more to be done. Donate today to help reunite families and keep children safe across the nation.
