About the National Child ID Program

Why should we fingerprint our children?

  • 450,000 children run away each year
  • 300,000 children are abducted each year by family members
  • More than 58,000 children are abducted every year by non-family members

That’s more than 800,000 children in America missing each year – one child every 40 seconds. Yet, when the National Child Identification Program began; less than two percent of parents had a copy of their child’s fingerprints to use in case of an emergency.

The National Child Identification Program is a community service safety initiative dedicated to changing these statistics, by providing parents and guardians, with a tool they can use to help protect their children. The ID Kit allows parents to collect specific information by easily recording the physical characteristics, fingerprints and DNA of their children on identification cards that are then kept at home by the parent or guardian. If ever needed, this ID Kit gives authorities vital information to assist their efforts to locate a missing child.

Since its inception in 1997, the National Child ID Program has distributed over 70 million kits throughout North America. The program has been recognized by Congress and today works with federal, state, and local leaders, coaches, athletes, faith-based organizations, and corporate citizens to increase the safety of children in communities across the country.

In 2022, the National Child ID Program will distribute over 10 million kits to children across North America.

AFCA logo

American Football Coaches Association

In 1997, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) helped create the National Child Identification Program with the goal of fingerprinting 20 million children. In the program’s first two years, nearly seven million ID Kits were distributed through stadiums, churches and community events. Now more than 54 million ID Kits have been distributed, making the National Child Identification Program the LARGEST child safety initiative ever conducted.

In December 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) joined in partnership with the AFCA to help increase parents awareness regarding the need to improve child safety.  Agents participated with the AFCA in numerous national, regional and local efforts to explain the problem of missing children and the importance of having a completed Child ID Kit to provide to law enforcement in the time of need.  During the partnership, the FBI encouraged all 18,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S to participate in the National Child Identification Program.