President Bush’s Commitment to Increasing Children’s Safety

For FY 2003, President Bush has proposed a 26% increase in funding for the Missing and Exploited Children's Program, which provides training for state and local enforcement on handling missing child cases. As a result, the President’s budget request would almost double funding for the Department of Justice’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICACTF) program.

In August, the President also announced the release of a new guidebook – the “Parent’s Guide to Child Safety.” The guidebook is designed to help parents take specific steps to improve the safety of their children, and it includes information that children of all ages can understand.

The guidebook reflects the work of experts on child safety from the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It is available online in English and in Spanish at www.missingkids.com.

The Department of Education sent a copy of the English and Spanish version to every public and private school and all main public libraries in the country, reaching over 110,000 schools and more than 6,000 libraries.

In the two weeks following the mailing, the Department of Education took orders for more than 1 million additional copies of the English version and nearly 200,000 copies of the Spanish version.

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