If My Child Wanders: Elopement Prevention & Emergency Readiness Guide

When a child wanders or leaves a safe area unexpectedly, families can feel like everything happens at once. If My Child Wanders was created to help parents, caregivers, educators, and support teams prepare before an emergency happens—and know what to do if it does.

This practical Peaceful Playtime guide focuses on prevention, communication, preparation, and safety without blame. It helps families look beyond the behavior itself and consider what a child may be seeking, avoiding, communicating, or responding to.

Inside this guide:

• Practical home and community safety planning
• Ways to identify wandering patterns and high-risk situations
• Communication supports for requesting breaks, movement, outside time, help, or "all done"
• Water, traffic, parking lot, school, field trip, and community safety considerations
• Step-by-step guidance for responding when a child is missing
• School elopement planning ideas
• A Community / First-Responder Information Sheet
• Emergency contact and identification planning
• Tips for communicating a child's sensory and communication needs to responders
• An action checklist for families and caregivers
• Guidance on what to avoid when building a wandering safety plan
• Ideas for reviewing and improving the plan after an incident

Who is this resource for?

This guide may be helpful for parents and caregivers of children who wander, bolt, leave supervised spaces, seek preferred locations, or move away from adults during overwhelming situations.

It can also support teachers, childcare providers, grandparents, family members, and other trusted adults who participate in the child's safety plan.

Peaceful Playtime's approach

Wandering is not simply treated as "bad behavior." This guide encourages adults to consider communication, sensory needs, transitions, curiosity, access to preferred places, and escape from overwhelming situations while still keeping safety the priority.

The goal is simple: Prepare the adults. Support the child. Strengthen the safety plan. 💙

Digital Product

This is a digital PDF download. No physical product will be shipped.

Print the pages you need, save a digital copy for reference, and share appropriate portions with members of your child's support team.

Educational use only. This guide does not replace emergency services, individualized medical or behavioral advice, or local safety requirements.

Peaceful Playtime — Support. Connection. Everyday confidence.