You might think you know all of your child's friends, but this is probably not true, especially if you are dealing with an older child. It might also be a good idea to have two copies of this list. The child we were recently searching for took the list that the family kept near the phone with her when she ran away. Get to know your child's friends and their parents. These days just because you know the child's last name doesn't necessarily mean you know their parents.
Some families have several different last names involved.
If your child disappears, you may find yourself wasting valuable time tracking down their friends that you thought you knew. This can also help with the filing status of a missing child alert. You will need to be honest with officials when you are filing a report. Make sure that your children know how to call you collect. We have just closed a case that when the children were returned they stated that they could have called a couple of times but weren't sure how to call collect.