OJJDP Commemorates the 41st Annual National Missing Children’s Day
OJJDP observed the 41st annual National Missing Children’s Day on May 22 with an expanded event featuring a panel discussion focused on children who go missing while under state care. National Missing Children’s Day calls attention to the estimated 375,000 children who go missing in the United States every year and the need to prioritize child safety nationwide.
Helping Young People Transition From Foster Care to Independence
Too many young people leave foster care unprepared for life on their own. In northwest Oregon, OJJDP grantee Jackson Street Services works to ensure that youth aging out of foster care have a safe place to live where they can develop the skills they need to thrive on their own. Next Steps houses up to 25 young adults in 3 homes, providing safety, stability, and companionship.
From the Administrator's Desk
Can't Find a Seat? Build Your Own Table
Young people with lived experience in the juvenile justice system advocated for authentic youth inclusion and engagement, echoing OJJDP’s guiding principles during “Encouraging Youth as Leaders of Change in Violence Reduction,” a panel discussion facilitated by Administrator Liz Ryan on April 3. Held in Chicago, IL, during the National Community Violence Intervention Conference, an annual meeting for Office of Justice Programs grantees, the panel featured emerging youth leaders: Audi Wodrazka Espinoza and Emilio Carranza-Davis from the the Coalition for Juvenile Justice Emerging Leaders Committee, and Tina Harris from the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee of New Mexico. They advised perseverance—saying young people denied a seat “at the table” should build their own table.
From the Field: Providing Quick, Coordinated Responses When Children Go Missing
In 2023, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted with 28,866 cases of missing children. A quick, coordinated response by law enforcement personnel increases the likelihood of a child’s safe recovery. Child Abduction Response Teams (CARTs) provide a multiagency, often multijurisdictional composite of law enforcement and other professionals who are trained and equipped to respond in the search and recovery of an endangered missing child. OJJDP’s AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance program partners with the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College to provide no-cost CART training for new and existing teams, and mentoring and certification for established teams.
Tribal Connections: Helping To Bring Her Home
The nearly 29,000 reports of missing children received in 2023 by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children included a disproportionate number of Native American children. The Center called attention to them on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls Day—May 5—with targeted social media posts, including this collage showing the faces of Indigenous women and girls who have disappeared from their communities. To share information about a missing child, contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1–800–THE–LOST (1–800–843–5678).
News In Brief
- OJJDP Partners Develop 5-Year Strategic Plan for Multidisciplinary Responses to Child Abuse
- Center for Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities Seeks Applicants for Youth and Family Council
- AMBER Advocate Highlights Program's Annual Symposium
- Dataset from the 2022 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey Is Now Available
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An alarming number of young people in foster care go missing, and state agencies fail to report an estimated 47 percent of cases to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, despite federal requirements. State agencies did not report an estimated 34,869 of 74,353 episodes of children and youth missing from foster care between July 1, 2018, and December 31, 2020, as required by the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014, the Office of the Inspector General reported in March 2023. Another 16,246 episodes were not reported within the required 24-hour notification period.