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Runaway and Homeless Youth
Parent Support
What to do if Your Child is Missing/Has Run Away
Call 911 or your local police immediately and report the disappearance. THERE IS NO 24-HOUR WAITING PERIOD! Report your child as a runaway/missing person and have them list the child's name and date of birth with the National Crime Information Center. Give the police as much information as you can to describe your child. If he has run away before, where did he go? Write down his cell phone or pager number for the investigators and a list of places (and their addresses) that your child often frequents. If your child took his own car, write down a description and license plate number.
- Conduct a search in your home and neighborhood. Look into any space that may be big enough to accommodate a person, such as a shed, car, culvert or closet. Be careful to not disturb any clues that may be present.
- CALL the National Runaway Switchboard at 800-621-4000. This is a 24-hour-a-day confidential telephone service for both parents and runaways. Services include crisis intervention, information, referrals, and the Home Free program in partnership with Greyhound Lines, Inc. Leave a message for your child with the NRS.
- Call your child’s closest friends and family members to find out if they may know where our child is or when they last saw or communicated with your child. Have these friends reach out to other friends to see if they know anything.
- Make a list of family members, neighbors, friends, coworkers and others who know your child. Make a copy of this list and give it to law enforcement.
- Create a missing person flyer with the missing child’s picture, a description of what he or she was last wearing, the last place and time he or she was seen, any physical traits, such as hair and eye color, height and weight, body markings, etc. Have your friends and family canvas the neighborhood with the fliers within a 10 mile radius of the last place the child was seen.
- Install a caller ID on your phone.
- Leave a message on your message machine especially for your child. Reassure him that you love him unconditionally.
- Check recent communications including your child's cell phone bills and e-mails (and any other internet contacts) for clues of persons with whom he/she has had contact recently. Also check credit card activity.
- Keep a tracking sheet of the phone numbers of everyone involved, including law enforcement, media, and other important people. Also log and date your communications with law enforcement and action steps taken. Make a list of anything they may take from your home.
- If the child is 13 or over and there are no witnesses to an abduction, law enforcement will consider the fact that she ran away or left on her own.
- The media can be very useful in helping to get the word and images out to a wide audience.
- Law enforcement must look at all options, and that includes the child’s own family. Cooperation is best and can expedite and empower the search process.
- Take care of yourself and your other children. Turn to people you know and trust for support.
- Don’t be afraid to get support. Engage with other local families who’ve been through similar distress, talk to professionals at a local social service agency, or contact your local hotline for parents of missing children.
Aftercare
Any child who has run away repeatedly should be referred to a mental-health/social service professional. There must be underlying reasons that have caused the runaway behavior. Running away is always a cry for help and the issues must be confronted and resolved. Perhaps the child is running from a bad situation at home. A perpetual runaway may require out-of-home placement in a special residential treatment facility or foster home that can keep him safe while trying to resolve the issues with which he struggles.
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