Federal Government To Launch A National Missing Person Alert Initiative For People With Autism

The federal government is developing a national initiative intended to improve emergency response when children and adults with autism go missing. Announced August 21, 2026, the National Autism Missing and Endangered Person Alert Initiative will provide state, tribal, territorial, and local governments with a national framework and resources for using existing Missing and Endangered Persons (MEP) alerts more consistently in qualifying autism-related missing-person cases. Rather than creating a separate national alert system, the initiative will build on existing MEP alert processes and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). Adoption of . . .