On January 5, 2024, a 17-year-old student, who has Down syndrome, went missing after a bus she was on dropped her off at school even though the school was closed for the day. Over the next 24 hours, police and volunteers worked to retrace her steps trying to locate the teen. Although they were successful in finding the girl unharmed, there are many stories of lost individuals with an intellectual disability that don’t have a happy ending.  

 

Children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable when they go missing due to their unique needs. Some are unable to communicate effectively or even nonverbal while others may gravitate to things that threaten their safety such as bodies of water, busy roadways or highways, or even vehicles like fire trucks and trains. Wandering is also a behavior that sometimes occurs when a person becomes lost or confused about their location. This poses as a major threat to the welfare of that individual since the death rate of someone missing more than 72 hours with an intellectual disability is as high as 88 percent.   

 

Similar to an Amber Alert, we plan to reintroduce a bill that would establish a Purple Alert system in Pennsylvania to help authorities notify the public and assist in locating a missing individual with an intellectual disability.  Since being enacted over two years ago in Florida, their Purple Alert system has found more than 400 people once an alert was issued. We would love to have this extra safeguard put in place here in the Commonwealth.  

 

Last session, SB 1079 had bipartisan cosponsors which included:  Senators Costa, Tartaglione, Santarsiero, Pennycuick, Haywood, Langerholc, Boscola, J. Ward, Kane, Schwank, Miller and Farry.