The Deadliest Minutes: Why autism cases demand faster alerts
For many families in the autism community, the arrival of warm weather brings a familiar fear: drowning season.
Nearly half of children with autism will wander – or elope – from safe environments, often bolting to water, especially in late spring and summer. For many, water can silence overwhelming stimuli like noise or bright lights and be a soothing balm. Despite not knowing how to swim, they often exhibit no fear, even entering frigid or murky water.
Last year alone, at least 97 children with autism were found dead after wandering; 84 drowned. Despite the rising toll in pools, lakes, ponds and other bodies of water, prevention efforts have struggled to keep pace. Most drownings happen in minutes, long before first responders, drones, helicopters or K-9 teams can arrive.
Now, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is recommending a simple but potentially life-saving idea: get urgent alerts directly to the people already nearby before first responders can reach them, with one clear directive: SEARCH WATER NOW.
Similar to AMBER Alerts, these Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) could be used in a powerful new way to save children who wander. Most children who drown are found within a half-mile radius.
“For children with autism, going missing is not just a search, it’s a race against time,” said John Bischoff, who oversees NCMEC’s Missing Children Division. “For those who wander to water, the outcome can be tragic within minutes. At NCMEC, our role is to drive awareness, deliver specialized training and support rapid-response efforts to bring children home quickly and safely.”
Here’s how these new emergency alerts could work: the moment a 911 call is received about a missing child with autism at risk of drowning, a message could be quickly sent to cell phones in a tight search radius.
A sample alert.
Lori McIIwain, founder and president of the National Autism Safety Council, said that as first responders are racing to the scene, valuable seconds go by that can mean the matter of life or death.
“What this rapid-alert approach would do is eliminate those seconds when you can reach people already there,” McIIwain said. “Communities are devastated when they lose a child right where they are. A lot say, ‘Why didn’t I know this?’ These alerts would give communities a chance to help a child.”
It won’t be as simple as just instructing 911 centers to send WEA messages. Each community would need to develop protocols to get people out quickly to check water.
Here at NCMEC we’ve developed special search protocols for first responders and new training on the importance of searching water first. But everyone should identify water hazards in their immediate area. It’s easy to do through Google maps.
Interested communities can email autism@ncmec.org for more information. Your simple actions could save a life.
To learn more about autism and wandering go to https://www.ncmec.org/theissues/autism.
Read about “Jac: The young face of a growing tragedy”: https://www.ncmec.org/blog/2025/raising-jac-the-young-face-of-a-growing-crisis.