Kevin and Avonte’s Law Resources: ANCOR Coalition Letter to Congress, Coalition Webinar

As part of our work with the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), ANCOR signed onto a letter to U.S. Senate and House committees that oversee federal funding to ask them to include references to Kevin and Avonte’s Law, which became law this year, in their 2019 appropriations language. Specifically, both the House and Senate relevant committees granted $2 million in FY19 to help state and local law enforcement address wandering, but the House version of the funding bill does not mention the resources granted by Kevin and Avonte’s Law. The letter thanks the committees for the funding and requests that House bill also include language on the law.

ANCOR has been a lead supporter of Kevin and Avonte’s Law, which reauthorized and updated the old Missing Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Program as the Missing Americans Alert Program so that these programs include people with developmental disabilities and autism.

ANCOR members who want to learn more about this law might be interested in a joint webinar by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA), Autism Speaks, and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC). The webinar will be held on December 20 at 2pm ET. As written in the description: “The goal of the webinar is to increase awareness of the law to stakeholders, including caregivers as well as state and local entities.  Presenters will give a description of how the new law works, how grants will be made available, strategies used to locate persons who wander as well as tips for caregivers to prevent wandering.” Find more information and register here.