February 27, 2026 ⢠23 mins
Laila’s Gift founder and originator of the LEAD (Laila’s Elopement Awareness and Dissemination) Act.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm wonderful. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I am doing excellent? Thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Hey, I'm glad we were able to I'm glad we
were able to track you down your story. When we
were reading about it, the story was number one fascinating.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Number two seems very very smart.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
And then number three the number of people we heard
from whether they have nonverbal autistic kids of any age,
and then you know people who have whether it's parents
or grandparents with dementia.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
This seems very very smart to me.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
And we learned about one thing that well, you know,
the one thing that I learned sharing.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
The term elopement. I had never heard of before.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I feel horrible saying that, but I had never heard
of one of those cases where whether it's a child
that gets out or an adult that gets out with
dementia or autism, whatever, I had never heard of that
being referred to as an elopement.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
That's common. Do not feel bad. This is exactly why
the LEAD Act exists because we want to spread that
awareness and that education.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And what does LEAD stand for.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Leila's Elopement Awareness and Dissemination Act. It's also a way
to lead the nation. In my opinion. Elopement is a
national crisis. I've heard the segment that you all did
earlier in the week, and thank you for bringing up
such an important topic. You are not alone and not
(01:34):
knowing what elopement is or is not. A lot of
people are attributed to getting married, which is very true,
but there's a lot of families and caregivers like ours
that have a very dark meaning of elopement. And we've
been suffering in silence for way too long and trying
to manage it the best way that we can, and
(01:56):
it's time that we educate navigate this crisis together. The
Lead ACT. The ACT is an acronym that stands for Access, Coordination,
and Training. So the five bills that you all were
looking at earlier in the week, it's really around improving
these three elements in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Hey, and so what is the like?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
So one of the things we learned about was that
or one of the pushes of the of the ACT
is to.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Better training at the law enforcement level.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Of how do you how do you interact with or
how do you what are you supposed to do in
the case where whether it's a child and I And
part of that part of that term child bothers me
a little bit, and let me let me explain why,
because I mean it in a good way. Is when
somebody says, oh, you know, like a nonverbal autistic child,
(02:53):
I think that at least my mind goes young. But
we were talking to somebody who was like, I have
a nineteen year old child, So I do understand the
importance of saying, hey, like, we're not just talking about
a young child who you know, a five or a
six year old who got out of the house or
(03:15):
got away and we're.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Trying to figure that out.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
We're also talking about eighteen, nineteen, twenty twenty one, twenty
two year old who got out and is now I
don't the police are trying to help, and now this
person is going to potentially act out in fear or
flight and want to fight back. That's a lot different
than trying to figure out a way to manage a
(03:40):
five year.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Old exactly, right, Like I'll take Layla example, Laila will
always be my child, even when she's in her thirties.
So when we refer to child, it's essentially an individual
that's still in your care as a parent, right, and
we call that caregiving. A lot of people associate caregiving
with you know, you're caring for a spouse with a
(04:02):
chronic illness, so you're caring for your grandmother or grandfather
that has dementia, which is all very true, But caregiven
can also mean raising a child with medically complex needs
that may need to be with you for a lifetime.
And that's my situation with Laila. I know that you
guys covered that she has autism and is nonverbal. Do
you want me to cover just in thirty seconds her
(04:23):
history here because I think it'll add a lot of flavor.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, of course, Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So Layla and Lana are twins. They were born in
twenty fourteen, and Layla was John Hopkins' first case study
of a very rare syndrome called Jacobson syndrome. So eleven
years ago, I found that Layla was one of only
one hundred people in the world with this very rare syndrome.
We did not know much. All we knew is that
(04:49):
most kids with this syndrome don't make it past the
age of two because of all of the complications that
comes with it. By the time she was four months,
she had about eight surgeries, including heart surgery. Oh Jesus. Yeah,
she's she's a trooper. We did not think she was
going to make and then, you know, we were just
taking a by day and learning as we went. She
(05:11):
made it past old. It was to celebrate three years old,
to celebrate all the way through six years old. And
mind you, at the time she was still in a wheelchair.
She had a hard time walking. She was hypotonic essentially,
meaning her skin is almost like spaghetti form, right, like
very difficult to just be building and stern right, which
(05:33):
did for mobility. So at six years old, I'm giving
her a bath and I took it and I was
getting her dressed and I think I want to grab
a towel or something. All of a sudden, Laylah starts
to walk like she's never not walked. I mean it
was I cried and.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
As oh my god, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yes, and you know, all stuff these mamas and dad
is out there. No, we always have our phone candy
because at any given moment, our children can do something
that we weren't expecting. So I caught this on camera
and it was just an extraordinary moment. Oh my god, Milestone,
that's crazy, that's crazy, insane, walking like Susan. I mean
it wasn't like you know how you see little babies
(06:13):
and toddlers like crawling and then walking and falling. I
mean this girl jetted and wow, I lost it. And
as great of a milestone that was, we later learned
of the risk of elopement.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Right, Oh sure of course. Yeah. No, like you're that
moment you're like this is great. Oh that could go
the other way.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Hey, so so so one of the I just let
me get back to a couple of things. Number one,
one of the things that you talked about was awareness
and training at the law enforcement level. And one of
the one of the things that I that I wanted
to ask and is is that is that feasible? And
(06:54):
what I mean by that, I'm not questioning whether it's
important or whether you would want every law enforcement any
anybody in law enforcement, any cop, it doesn't matter to
have that training, but is it feasible to do that?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Great question? A little bit of background on how law
enforcement works. So I'll talk about Maryland, but there's really
kind of is peanut butter spread across all law enforcement agencies.
So each state has a core set of training hours
that law enforcement need, be it annually, every two years,
(07:31):
every three years, depending on their cycle. So typically it's
an annual cycle. So within the state of Maryland, there's
a core set of hours that each law enforcement officer
needs to hold and based on the curriculum, is what
they train on. So for example, firearms safety is a
must right. But then you also have electives. So currently
(07:55):
in the state of Maryland training with individuals that have IDD,
which is in intellectual developmental disabilities or autism, there's also
some courses on elopement and wandering. Mostly these are elective courses, right,
so a law enforcement officer can decide to elect and
take this course, but it's not mandatory a farms the state.
(08:17):
So we've sat down with former law enforcement, existing law enforcement,
and also the Police Commission on Training and Standards for
the State of Maryland, and we reviewed the Public Safety
Act and we reviewed the existing curricula, and we find
it very feasible to incorporate this training into the existing curricula,
which would require training on elopement and wandering specific to
(08:43):
individuals that have autism dimension other non apparent disabilities to
better understand search and rescue consideration. For example, we talked
about the nearby bodies of water and droughting being the
leading fatality.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
I hate sure, I hate those stories. I hate those stories.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. You know, we have a pool
at home and the yeah, we have a pool, and listen,
it's because we have to create our own little oasist
because it's hard to take Layla to the beach. You know,
you can't really do much with a wheelchair and sand, right,
so we have to create a little oasis. And I'll
(09:20):
tell you that is the first thing Layla goes towards
every single time I open the back door. She loves
the water, but she doesn't know how to swim. And
she's not alone. This is what happens with a lot
of children. And again using that word children, right, but
that doesn't limit the age. A lot of children are
drawn to water. It's the calming, sensory feel. It's the color.
(09:42):
They love, the color blue, right, it's the sparkle. I
don't know if you've been around a child with autism,
but it's these sensory cravings that they get and water
just satisfies that. And unfortunately, the majority of children do
not know how to swim, and one in three that
deal with elopement are non verbal. So imagine that crisis
and that's where we see the heartbreak nationally and we
(10:05):
hear the headlines of children that are drowning as a result.
Because it's within seconds, right, it's just sitn't imagine here
for a seconds.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Oh it's one breath. It's one breath.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, one breath. That's it. Because the other thing is sure,
do people ever tell you?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Do people ever go like, I get it right? But
do people ever look at you and go? And I
understand the oasis? But that would scare the crap out
of me having a pool.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, we also have a lot of locks, okay, well.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Like a prison.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yes, yes, yes, And that's part of HB fourteen thirty four,
which is the caregiving web page. Right, this is around
safety planning. So it's important for caregivers to one understand
what elopement and wandering is and two to better prepare.
This act is not saying it's all on law enforcement
and first responders. Right. This act is not thing it's
(11:00):
all on schools. And this act is not saying it's
all on caregivers and families. This act is saying we
can coordinate together to better educate caregivers on what elopement
and wandering is and ensure they're taking the proper precaution
and preparedness at home or in public. It's better preparing
first responders, not just law enforcement, but also working with
(11:21):
other public safety inter agencies. And that's part of what's
in the Lead Act related to HB six point thirty
four and Senate Bill seven forty five. It's working in
tangent with all of these inner agencies to understand what
elopement and wandering is and if we know that it's
a child that has autism, we're searching water first, right,
That's what our national experts are saying. But then it's
(11:42):
also working with the schools. For example, I have Laila
attends an all special needs school in the county. It's
one of very few in the state of Maryland, and
it's ages three through twenty one. Everyone there has an
IEP and one hundred percent of the children there are
not on a diploma track. These are children essentially getting
(12:05):
life skills OTPT, speech therapy, et cetera throughout the day. Now,
a school like that obviously is pretty well trained on
what to do. But Lana School, which is her twin
sister may not be right. So this is essentially again
educating the schools on what elopement and wandering is, but
then also allowing families to decide that they want to
(12:29):
use a locative device and build that into what's called
the IEP, which is an individualized evaluation plan needed for
all children in public schools that have special needs plans.
So building that in there to say, Okay, this child
is at risk of elopement and wandering and mom or
dad or guardian decided to use I heard angel sense
(12:52):
come up, yes, the day before in the conversation, I
was going to ask you about that. Yeah, decided to
use angel sense, right, So we write that in so
that way, if the child elopes, we activate the crisis
management plan. We understand this childheads angel sense, We contact
the families, and we discharge. We discharge, I'm sorry, dispatch
(13:13):
law enforcement to the nearby bodies of water, which now
we've mapped out beforehand through one of the House bills,
House Bill one thousand, where now we know exactly where
the nearby bodies of water are around the school perimeter,
and first responders are going there first.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Hey, oh, I'm sorry, Go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Oh no, no, The last thing was I know that
there was a question around what does the access to
devices mean. You're absolutely right, Angel Sense and other devices
are possible solutions, but parents pay out of pocket. We
are creating a classification called Elopement Response devices that would
(13:55):
be and honestly should be covered under the medicaids under
local funding, et cetera for qualified and eligible family.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Because it seemed like when we talked to a couple
of people who have those devices for their children, yeh,
the it seems very expensive, like especially like when you
start getting into that license mucily monitoring and stuff like,
it seems really really expensive.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
But then yeah, but I mean what parent, I mean,
if you can.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Afford it, what parent's not going to want to do it.
I mean you almost feel like you have no choice.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
You have no choice. I mean think about it. It's
almost like you're choosing, you know, a nice dinner out
over your child. You're constantly in the balance of how
do I keep my child safe? And you'll do anything
to do that, right, So why put the burden on
the families to try to scrape up the money for
this necessary life saving device when we can provide access
(14:53):
to families because it is a qualifiable diagnosis, whether it's autism, dementia,
or some other non apparent into disabilities that prompts the
need and the want to elope. You know the big
part here, and I love, I love, I love, I love.
I cannot harp on that more that all of you
were just like, I've never heard of this, because that
(15:14):
made my heart smile as hard as this you know
journey has been.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Oh, I thought it would piss you off. I felt horrible.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Whoa no, And this is this is why we're doing
it right, because this is something I my personal like
mission through all of this is that the next time
you see a little boy or an older adult walking
and they appear to be disoriented, you're not automatically assuming
like something else right, You're thinking, are they eloping? Perhaps
(15:44):
you're calling none one once right and let the train,
the trained personnel handle it. From that point. Elopement is
something that will happen to regurgitate the stats. So in
thes with autism, at age four is when elope ment
behavior typically begins. Sometimes you know, as some of the
(16:08):
parents that called and said, sometimes the children grow out
of it. Sometimes they don't you still have adults with
autism that are prone to wandering and eloping, but that
behavior typically starts at four years old. Forty nine percent
of individuals with autism are prone to eloping, some as
frequent as once per week. This is not a like,
oh we did it once and okay, they got it
(16:30):
out of their system thing. You've heard one of the
moms say it was almost daily, right, It's a daily fear,
and you're almost like, I've talked to families that are like,
I homeschool and I lock my kid in their roads,
and it's like, as a precaution, is that maybe we
can't live life like that. Right. We have to be
able to educate and explain what we're dealing with so
(16:52):
that way we can also have a work life balance. Right,
But then also our children have some sort of life.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Well yeah, no, I mean they're not going to spend
their whole lives locked in a bedroom.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
That's horrible. That's no one that'd be horrible.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Hey, before we get too far away from it, you
said something earlier that I was going to ask you
about if somebody whether it is you know, a somebody
with dementia, an older person, a younger person, you know,
kind of four five six, like really now talking about
somebody younger then obviously in the middle is if somebody
did see somebody who.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Eloped or wandered.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Is the is the right thing because the natural reaction
is you want to help, but I wouldn't. I shouldn't
go run. I'm not telling you, I'm telling myself. I
should never go running up and go like I gotcha.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
The is it to call nine one one?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
First step is always called nine one one and keep
eyes on the individual, right right, call nine one one
and keep eyes on the individual. You're absolutely right. Sometimes
you know, we want to dive in and be good Samaritans,
but we don't know what could instigate or make the
individual feel fear, fearful or filled with anxiety, et cetera.
(18:07):
So my recommendation would be always called nine one one
and keep eyes on the individual. Only intervene if you
feel that individual is in some sort of danger.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Oh yeah no, if the kids running towards a pond,
I'm tackling.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Him exactly, okay, goodly, good yep, yep, absolutely fear there.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Was You were going to go, no, that is the
last thing to do, but yeah, no, go say you
got to save somebody's life.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Absolutely. I mean, it's just when you get some free time,
google child elopes and drowns, and there are some bodycam videos,
there are some near misses, there are some tragic stories
out there. In twenty twenty four, ninety one percent of
the fatalities due to elopement. We're drowning.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
No, I believe it.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I believe because I feel like you hear those stories
and I, like I said, I hate every one of them.
All right, So let's fast let's fast forward a little bit. Okay,
let's fast forward. Number one? Where is where is? Where
is everything at in terms of it passing or or
or the next steps? Number two? Is there anything people
can do to assist?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yes? Yes, yes, So the Lead Act is about lifespan, right,
And when we introduced this, we introduced five bills to
the Maryland General Assembly that all hit the floor. So
that was the first huge milestone for the Lead Act.
We had two hearings last week related to the first
Responder training. We had both the House bill hearing and
(19:38):
the Senate bill hearing, so we're waiting to hear if
that's been advanced. And then we had the House Bill
hearing the water mapping around the schools for the lot
nearby bodies of water within a mile. Reading. Yes, so
we're waiting to hear for the crossover bills, which are
the Senate Committee hearings for the water mapping. We have
(19:59):
three more set for March, and these are for the
other three bills, the Caregiving Resource web page, the locative
device usage, the voluntary usage at schools dominating within i EPs,
and then also the access to elopement response devices through
COOL funding and medicaid and put potentially even medicare ding
(20:22):
on this situation, A little fun fact here, and I
say fun, but it's actually pretty frightening. Uh, Maryland leaves
the nation in Alzheimer's prevalence. Did you know that?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Wait, Maryland leads the nation in Alzheimer's prevalence. Yep, No
I had no idea, go us, I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
No I had no clue.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yep. Based on the Alzheimer's Association, Maryland leads the nation
for Alzheimer's prevalence and Baltimore City is number one in
our state in terms of Alzheimer's prevalence. So if we
know that, right, and if we know that our autism
rates are growing. And also this this isn't only limited
to autism and dementia. I just want to be clear
(21:04):
about that, because we saw a case in Maryland Rashawn Williams,
if you're familiar, the young man that had down syndrome
and non verbal that essentially eloped and was stuck at
the metro for six days found him. So this this
was impactful across the board. Luckily this was a good
ending story, but it always doesn't go that way, right,
(21:25):
So what's really unique about the Lead act is it
looks at lifespan. This is not a training on autism
for first responders and dementia for first responders. What was
really the appreciative across the first responder community was that
this is a singular training on a littlement and wandering.
And because it's so relevant in our state, we can
(21:46):
set the national model because this is a crisis.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Across the country, right, It's horrible.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
So it really is. So to answer your last question
about how can people get involved, please go to Layless
Gifts dot org forward slash lead that is going to
have a page that lists all five bills and you
can see each inform each bill detail as you drill
through it. There's a form on there that you can
(22:12):
fill out. It will go directly to your local legislators
around your strong support for the Lead Act and why
you think it's important. You then join our advocacy network
and you can hear all about upcoming hearings how to
get involved, be it written testimony, in person testimony, or
virtual testimony. We really want families to come out and
(22:32):
speak about how important this is to you and your family.
Whether you're a caregiver with a child, whether you're a
caregiver with a mom or dad that has dementia, whether
you're an adult that lives with autism and you know
that you're prone to wandering. You just want to make
sure that you're protected with events that that happens to you.
(22:52):
Whatever the case is, please be part of the Lead
Act movement because we are one protecting almost vulnerable together,
and two, this is the opportunities for us to set
the tone nationally on how we can better work together
to provide access, coordination and training.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Cherry, you're the best. I appreciate the UH, I appreciate
the time. I'm glad you reached out.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Thank you so much for the opportunity again. I'm happy
you're walking away knowing what Alteman is. So the next
time you see someone that looks especially looks disoriented, what
do you do well?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
I call nine one one and I keep eyes on them.
Oh my god, don't quiz me. I'm gonna mess something up. Cherry,
You know that, all right?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
You got it, You got it.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Hey, I appreciate it. Hey you got a cherry. Thank you,
thank you very much
Hey, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm wonderful. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I am doing excellent? Thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Hey, I'm glad we were able to I'm glad we
were able to track you down your story. When we
were reading about it, the story was number one fascinating.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Number two seems very very smart.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
And then number three the number of people we heard
from whether they have nonverbal autistic kids of any age,
and then you know people who have whether it's parents
or grandparents with dementia.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
This seems very very smart to me.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
And we learned about one thing that well, you know,
the one thing that I learned sharing.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
The term elopement. I had never heard of before.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I feel horrible saying that, but I had never heard
of one of those cases where whether it's a child
that gets out or an adult that gets out with
dementia or autism, whatever, I had never heard of that
being referred to as an elopement.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
That's common. Do not feel bad. This is exactly why
the LEAD Act exists because we want to spread that
awareness and that education.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And what does LEAD stand for.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Leila's Elopement Awareness and Dissemination Act. It's also a way
to lead the nation. In my opinion. Elopement is a
national crisis. I've heard the segment that you all did
earlier in the week, and thank you for bringing up
such an important topic. You are not alone and not
(01:34):
knowing what elopement is or is not. A lot of
people are attributed to getting married, which is very true,
but there's a lot of families and caregivers like ours
that have a very dark meaning of elopement. And we've
been suffering in silence for way too long and trying
to manage it the best way that we can, and
(01:56):
it's time that we educate navigate this crisis together. The
Lead ACT. The ACT is an acronym that stands for Access, Coordination,
and Training. So the five bills that you all were
looking at earlier in the week, it's really around improving
these three elements in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Hey, and so what is the like?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
So one of the things we learned about was that
or one of the pushes of the of the ACT
is to.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Better training at the law enforcement level.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Of how do you how do you interact with or
how do you what are you supposed to do in
the case where whether it's a child and I And
part of that part of that term child bothers me
a little bit, and let me let me explain why,
because I mean it in a good way. Is when
somebody says, oh, you know, like a nonverbal autistic child,
(02:53):
I think that at least my mind goes young. But
we were talking to somebody who was like, I have
a nineteen year old child, So I do understand the
importance of saying, hey, like, we're not just talking about
a young child who you know, a five or a
six year old who got out of the house or
(03:15):
got away and we're.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Trying to figure that out.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
We're also talking about eighteen, nineteen, twenty twenty one, twenty
two year old who got out and is now I
don't the police are trying to help, and now this
person is going to potentially act out in fear or
flight and want to fight back. That's a lot different
than trying to figure out a way to manage a
(03:40):
five year.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Old exactly, right, Like I'll take Layla example, Laila will
always be my child, even when she's in her thirties.
So when we refer to child, it's essentially an individual
that's still in your care as a parent, right, and
we call that caregiving. A lot of people associate caregiving
with you know, you're caring for a spouse with a
(04:02):
chronic illness, so you're caring for your grandmother or grandfather
that has dementia, which is all very true, But caregiven
can also mean raising a child with medically complex needs
that may need to be with you for a lifetime.
And that's my situation with Laila. I know that you
guys covered that she has autism and is nonverbal. Do
you want me to cover just in thirty seconds her
(04:23):
history here because I think it'll add a lot of flavor.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, of course, Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So Layla and Lana are twins. They were born in
twenty fourteen, and Layla was John Hopkins' first case study
of a very rare syndrome called Jacobson syndrome. So eleven
years ago, I found that Layla was one of only
one hundred people in the world with this very rare syndrome.
We did not know much. All we knew is that
(04:49):
most kids with this syndrome don't make it past the
age of two because of all of the complications that
comes with it. By the time she was four months,
she had about eight surgeries, including heart surgery. Oh Jesus. Yeah,
she's she's a trooper. We did not think she was
going to make and then, you know, we were just
taking a by day and learning as we went. She
(05:11):
made it past old. It was to celebrate three years old,
to celebrate all the way through six years old. And
mind you, at the time she was still in a wheelchair.
She had a hard time walking. She was hypotonic essentially,
meaning her skin is almost like spaghetti form, right, like
very difficult to just be building and stern right, which
(05:33):
did for mobility. So at six years old, I'm giving
her a bath and I took it and I was
getting her dressed and I think I want to grab
a towel or something. All of a sudden, Laylah starts
to walk like she's never not walked. I mean it
was I cried and.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
As oh my god, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yes, and you know, all stuff these mamas and dad
is out there. No, we always have our phone candy
because at any given moment, our children can do something
that we weren't expecting. So I caught this on camera
and it was just an extraordinary moment. Oh my god, Milestone,
that's crazy, that's crazy, insane, walking like Susan. I mean
it wasn't like you know how you see little babies
(06:13):
and toddlers like crawling and then walking and falling. I
mean this girl jetted and wow, I lost it. And
as great of a milestone that was, we later learned
of the risk of elopement.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Right, Oh sure of course. Yeah. No, like you're that
moment you're like this is great. Oh that could go
the other way.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Hey, so so so one of the I just let
me get back to a couple of things. Number one,
one of the things that you talked about was awareness
and training at the law enforcement level. And one of
the one of the things that I that I wanted
to ask and is is that is that feasible? And
(06:54):
what I mean by that, I'm not questioning whether it's
important or whether you would want every law enforcement any
anybody in law enforcement, any cop, it doesn't matter to
have that training, but is it feasible to do that?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Great question? A little bit of background on how law
enforcement works. So I'll talk about Maryland, but there's really
kind of is peanut butter spread across all law enforcement agencies.
So each state has a core set of training hours
that law enforcement need, be it annually, every two years,
(07:31):
every three years, depending on their cycle. So typically it's
an annual cycle. So within the state of Maryland, there's
a core set of hours that each law enforcement officer
needs to hold and based on the curriculum, is what
they train on. So for example, firearms safety is a
must right. But then you also have electives. So currently
(07:55):
in the state of Maryland training with individuals that have IDD,
which is in intellectual developmental disabilities or autism, there's also
some courses on elopement and wandering. Mostly these are elective courses, right,
so a law enforcement officer can decide to elect and
take this course, but it's not mandatory a farms the state.
(08:17):
So we've sat down with former law enforcement, existing law enforcement,
and also the Police Commission on Training and Standards for
the State of Maryland, and we reviewed the Public Safety
Act and we reviewed the existing curricula, and we find
it very feasible to incorporate this training into the existing curricula,
which would require training on elopement and wandering specific to
(08:43):
individuals that have autism dimension other non apparent disabilities to
better understand search and rescue consideration. For example, we talked
about the nearby bodies of water and droughting being the
leading fatality.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
I hate sure, I hate those stories. I hate those stories.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. You know, we have a pool
at home and the yeah, we have a pool, and listen,
it's because we have to create our own little oasist
because it's hard to take Layla to the beach. You know,
you can't really do much with a wheelchair and sand, right,
so we have to create a little oasis. And I'll
(09:20):
tell you that is the first thing Layla goes towards
every single time I open the back door. She loves
the water, but she doesn't know how to swim. And
she's not alone. This is what happens with a lot
of children. And again using that word children, right, but
that doesn't limit the age. A lot of children are
drawn to water. It's the calming, sensory feel. It's the color.
(09:42):
They love, the color blue, right, it's the sparkle. I
don't know if you've been around a child with autism,
but it's these sensory cravings that they get and water
just satisfies that. And unfortunately, the majority of children do
not know how to swim, and one in three that
deal with elopement are non verbal. So imagine that crisis
and that's where we see the heartbreak nationally and we
(10:05):
hear the headlines of children that are drowning as a result.
Because it's within seconds, right, it's just sitn't imagine here
for a seconds.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Oh it's one breath. It's one breath.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, one breath. That's it. Because the other thing is sure,
do people ever tell you?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Do people ever go like, I get it right? But
do people ever look at you and go? And I
understand the oasis? But that would scare the crap out
of me having a pool.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, we also have a lot of locks, okay, well.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Like a prison.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yes, yes, yes, And that's part of HB fourteen thirty four,
which is the caregiving web page. Right, this is around
safety planning. So it's important for caregivers to one understand
what elopement and wandering is and two to better prepare.
This act is not saying it's all on law enforcement
and first responders. Right. This act is not thing it's
(11:00):
all on schools. And this act is not saying it's
all on caregivers and families. This act is saying we
can coordinate together to better educate caregivers on what elopement
and wandering is and ensure they're taking the proper precaution
and preparedness at home or in public. It's better preparing
first responders, not just law enforcement, but also working with
(11:21):
other public safety inter agencies. And that's part of what's
in the Lead Act related to HB six point thirty
four and Senate Bill seven forty five. It's working in
tangent with all of these inner agencies to understand what
elopement and wandering is and if we know that it's
a child that has autism, we're searching water first, right,
That's what our national experts are saying. But then it's
(11:42):
also working with the schools. For example, I have Laila
attends an all special needs school in the county. It's
one of very few in the state of Maryland, and
it's ages three through twenty one. Everyone there has an
IEP and one hundred percent of the children there are
not on a diploma track. These are children essentially getting
(12:05):
life skills OTPT, speech therapy, et cetera throughout the day. Now,
a school like that obviously is pretty well trained on
what to do. But Lana School, which is her twin
sister may not be right. So this is essentially again
educating the schools on what elopement and wandering is, but
then also allowing families to decide that they want to
(12:29):
use a locative device and build that into what's called
the IEP, which is an individualized evaluation plan needed for
all children in public schools that have special needs plans.
So building that in there to say, Okay, this child
is at risk of elopement and wandering and mom or
dad or guardian decided to use I heard angel sense
(12:52):
come up, yes, the day before in the conversation, I
was going to ask you about that. Yeah, decided to
use angel sense, right, So we write that in so
that way, if the child elopes, we activate the crisis
management plan. We understand this childheads angel sense, We contact
the families, and we discharge. We discharge, I'm sorry, dispatch
(13:13):
law enforcement to the nearby bodies of water, which now
we've mapped out beforehand through one of the House bills,
House Bill one thousand, where now we know exactly where
the nearby bodies of water are around the school perimeter,
and first responders are going there first.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Hey, oh, I'm sorry, Go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Oh no, no, The last thing was I know that
there was a question around what does the access to
devices mean. You're absolutely right, Angel Sense and other devices
are possible solutions, but parents pay out of pocket. We
are creating a classification called Elopement Response devices that would
(13:55):
be and honestly should be covered under the medicaids under
local funding, et cetera for qualified and eligible family.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Because it seemed like when we talked to a couple
of people who have those devices for their children, yeh,
the it seems very expensive, like especially like when you
start getting into that license mucily monitoring and stuff like,
it seems really really expensive.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
But then yeah, but I mean what parent, I mean,
if you can.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Afford it, what parent's not going to want to do it.
I mean you almost feel like you have no choice.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
You have no choice. I mean think about it. It's
almost like you're choosing, you know, a nice dinner out
over your child. You're constantly in the balance of how
do I keep my child safe? And you'll do anything
to do that, right, So why put the burden on
the families to try to scrape up the money for
this necessary life saving device when we can provide access
(14:53):
to families because it is a qualifiable diagnosis, whether it's autism, dementia,
or some other non apparent into disabilities that prompts the
need and the want to elope. You know the big
part here, and I love, I love, I love, I love.
I cannot harp on that more that all of you
were just like, I've never heard of this, because that
(15:14):
made my heart smile as hard as this you know
journey has been.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Oh, I thought it would piss you off. I felt horrible.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Whoa no, And this is this is why we're doing
it right, because this is something I my personal like
mission through all of this is that the next time
you see a little boy or an older adult walking
and they appear to be disoriented, you're not automatically assuming
like something else right, You're thinking, are they eloping? Perhaps
(15:44):
you're calling none one once right and let the train,
the trained personnel handle it. From that point. Elopement is
something that will happen to regurgitate the stats. So in
thes with autism, at age four is when elope ment
behavior typically begins. Sometimes you know, as some of the
(16:08):
parents that called and said, sometimes the children grow out
of it. Sometimes they don't you still have adults with
autism that are prone to wandering and eloping, but that
behavior typically starts at four years old. Forty nine percent
of individuals with autism are prone to eloping, some as
frequent as once per week. This is not a like,
oh we did it once and okay, they got it
(16:30):
out of their system thing. You've heard one of the
moms say it was almost daily, right, It's a daily fear,
and you're almost like, I've talked to families that are like,
I homeschool and I lock my kid in their roads,
and it's like, as a precaution, is that maybe we
can't live life like that. Right. We have to be
able to educate and explain what we're dealing with so
(16:52):
that way we can also have a work life balance. Right,
But then also our children have some sort of life.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Well yeah, no, I mean they're not going to spend
their whole lives locked in a bedroom.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
That's horrible. That's no one that'd be horrible.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Hey, before we get too far away from it, you
said something earlier that I was going to ask you
about if somebody whether it is you know, a somebody
with dementia, an older person, a younger person, you know,
kind of four five six, like really now talking about
somebody younger then obviously in the middle is if somebody
did see somebody who.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Eloped or wandered.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Is the is the right thing because the natural reaction
is you want to help, but I wouldn't. I shouldn't
go run. I'm not telling you, I'm telling myself. I
should never go running up and go like I gotcha.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
The is it to call nine one one?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
First step is always called nine one one and keep
eyes on the individual, right right, call nine one one
and keep eyes on the individual. You're absolutely right. Sometimes
you know, we want to dive in and be good Samaritans,
but we don't know what could instigate or make the
individual feel fear, fearful or filled with anxiety, et cetera.
(18:07):
So my recommendation would be always called nine one one
and keep eyes on the individual. Only intervene if you
feel that individual is in some sort of danger.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Oh yeah no, if the kids running towards a pond,
I'm tackling.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Him exactly, okay, goodly, good yep, yep, absolutely fear there.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Was You were going to go, no, that is the
last thing to do, but yeah, no, go say you
got to save somebody's life.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Absolutely. I mean, it's just when you get some free time,
google child elopes and drowns, and there are some bodycam videos,
there are some near misses, there are some tragic stories
out there. In twenty twenty four, ninety one percent of
the fatalities due to elopement. We're drowning.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
No, I believe it.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I believe because I feel like you hear those stories
and I, like I said, I hate every one of them.
All right, So let's fast let's fast forward a little bit. Okay,
let's fast forward. Number one? Where is where is? Where
is everything at in terms of it passing or or
or the next steps? Number two? Is there anything people
can do to assist?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yes? Yes, yes, So the Lead Act is about lifespan, right,
And when we introduced this, we introduced five bills to
the Maryland General Assembly that all hit the floor. So
that was the first huge milestone for the Lead Act.
We had two hearings last week related to the first
Responder training. We had both the House bill hearing and
(19:38):
the Senate bill hearing, so we're waiting to hear if
that's been advanced. And then we had the House Bill
hearing the water mapping around the schools for the lot
nearby bodies of water within a mile. Reading. Yes, so
we're waiting to hear for the crossover bills, which are
the Senate Committee hearings for the water mapping. We have
(19:59):
three more set for March, and these are for the
other three bills, the Caregiving Resource web page, the locative
device usage, the voluntary usage at schools dominating within i EPs,
and then also the access to elopement response devices through
COOL funding and medicaid and put potentially even medicare ding
(20:22):
on this situation, A little fun fact here, and I
say fun, but it's actually pretty frightening. Uh, Maryland leaves
the nation in Alzheimer's prevalence. Did you know that?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Wait, Maryland leads the nation in Alzheimer's prevalence. Yep, No
I had no idea, go us, I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
No I had no clue.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yep. Based on the Alzheimer's Association, Maryland leads the nation
for Alzheimer's prevalence and Baltimore City is number one in
our state in terms of Alzheimer's prevalence. So if we
know that, right, and if we know that our autism
rates are growing. And also this this isn't only limited
to autism and dementia. I just want to be clear
(21:04):
about that, because we saw a case in Maryland Rashawn Williams,
if you're familiar, the young man that had down syndrome
and non verbal that essentially eloped and was stuck at
the metro for six days found him. So this this
was impactful across the board. Luckily this was a good
ending story, but it always doesn't go that way, right,
(21:25):
So what's really unique about the Lead act is it
looks at lifespan. This is not a training on autism
for first responders and dementia for first responders. What was
really the appreciative across the first responder community was that
this is a singular training on a littlement and wandering.
And because it's so relevant in our state, we can
(21:46):
set the national model because this is a crisis.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Across the country, right, It's horrible.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
So it really is. So to answer your last question
about how can people get involved, please go to Layless
Gifts dot org forward slash lead that is going to
have a page that lists all five bills and you
can see each inform each bill detail as you drill
through it. There's a form on there that you can
(22:12):
fill out. It will go directly to your local legislators
around your strong support for the Lead Act and why
you think it's important. You then join our advocacy network
and you can hear all about upcoming hearings how to
get involved, be it written testimony, in person testimony, or
virtual testimony. We really want families to come out and
(22:32):
speak about how important this is to you and your family.
Whether you're a caregiver with a child, whether you're a
caregiver with a mom or dad that has dementia, whether
you're an adult that lives with autism and you know
that you're prone to wandering. You just want to make
sure that you're protected with events that that happens to you.
(22:52):
Whatever the case is, please be part of the Lead
Act movement because we are one protecting almost vulnerable together,
and two, this is the opportunities for us to set
the tone nationally on how we can better work together
to provide access, coordination and training.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Cherry, you're the best. I appreciate the UH, I appreciate
the time. I'm glad you reached out.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Thank you so much for the opportunity again. I'm happy
you're walking away knowing what Alteman is. So the next
time you see someone that looks especially looks disoriented, what
do you do well?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
I call nine one one and I keep eyes on them.
Oh my god, don't quiz me. I'm gonna mess something up. Cherry,
You know that, all right?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
You got it, You got it.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Hey, I appreciate it. Hey you got a cherry. Thank you,
thank you very much
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