HARRISBURG – Lancaster County Sen. Scott Martin and Beaver County Sen. Camera Bartolotta plan to introduce legislation to help reunite lost children with their families. The Child Reunification Act will provide parents and guardians of kindergarteners with free ID kits to gather and store fingerprints, DNA collection swabs, and other information that could prove pivotal should their child ever disappear. Martin said this tool, while hopefully never used, will be critical in helping law enforcement locate a missing child. It’s a simple step that can save precious time and resources so that investigators can focus on locating missing children to reunite families. The inkless kits will not be stored in a database, but kept at home by families for expedited emergency use, if needed. Thirty-two other states offer a similar program and PA hopes to become the sixth nationwide to provide kits to all students in grades K-12. According to the FBI, over 500,000 children in the U.S. disappear each year, akin to one child every 40 seconds.
SEN. CAMERA BARTOLOTTA
SEN. SCOTT MARTIN