Oklahoma will turn over missing child information to national organization

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma's Department of Human Service plans to use a national organization's Web site to list information about the state's 90 missing foster children. <br><br>After

Sunday, January 5th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma's Department of Human Service plans to use a national organization's Web site to list information about the state's 90 missing foster children.

After officials nixed a plan to create a state Web site information about missing foster children will be turned over to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

``We decided that instead of spending the time and resources to create and maintain a Web site, it would be better to use that of an organization that already has credibility in this area,'' Department of Human Services spokesman George Johnson said.

``They are better equipped and experienced and have a highly visible site.''

In cases where older children are known to be frequent or habitual runaways, child protective services will wait 10 days before reporting the child to the center.

``About 35 to 40 percent of these kids often turn up or return home after about eight days,'' Johnson said. ``But on the 10th day, if they are still AWOL, then we will call both law enforcement and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.''

According to DHS records, 567 children recorded 782 runaway episodes. They remained missing an average of 133 days, The Daily Oklahoman reported in Sunday's editions.

Only two states _ Florida and Illinois _ require the immediate reporting of missing children in state custody, said Ben Ermini, director of the missing children's division for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The center accepts reports from the custodial parent for any child considered to be in danger. Runaways who are 13 or younger are automatically listed, but when a child is older the process is slower.

Ermini said runaways between the ages of 14 and 18 must be missing for at least 30 days before they are placed on the missing children's Web site.

``If we get a call from social workers, DHS officials or law enforcement, we immediately take the case,'' Ermini said.

Exceptions to those guidelines also include if the child has a mental illness or other illness requiring medication, if the child is suspected of leaving to meet someone contacted through the Internet or life-threatening circumstances.

Oklahoma's caseworkers, supervisors and other DHS workers will learn the new procedures and policies during their regular training this month, Johnson said.

Once a child is reported as missing, workers for the National Center for Missionand Exploited Children try to obtain a photo and create a poster that is put on the Web site and distributed nationally. The data also is entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center.

According the FBI's National Crime Information Center, more than 840,279 people in the United States were reported missing in 2001. Of those, 85 percent to 90 percent were juveniles.

Ermini said that since 1984, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has helped find more than 60,000 children.