Joshua Was Missing. The Alert System Did Not Fit Him.

Joshua Al-Lateef Jr. was six years old.

He was autistic. He was nonverbal. And he was gone.

His mother, Jonisa Cook, called 911.

An Amber Alert could not be issued because there was no evidence that Joshua had been abducted. The emergency system available to his family did not recognize his disappearance as the distinct kind of danger it was.

More than 24 hours after Joshua disappeared from his West Chester, Ohio, apartment complex, divers found his body in a pond near his home.

He was one week away from turning seven.

There is a clinical word for what happened before Joshua died.

Elopement.

The word sounds almost gentle.

A missing child is what the family is living.

A Pediatrics study involving 1,218 autistic children found that 49% had attempted to wander after age four. Among the children who were missing long enough to cause concern, 24% had been in danger of drowning and 65% had been in danger of traffic injury.

We have known these numbers for more than a decade.

And I know how long we have known them because more than ten years ago, I produced a national public-service announcement on autism and wandering for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

The PSA was called “Autism and Wandering: Stop, Seek, Stay.”

It went viral.

It was watched, posted and shared across the country.

And still, most people do not know what to do when they encounter a child alone who may be autistic.

That is one of the hardest truths about awareness.

Information can travel farther than we ever imagined and still fail to reach the person standing beside a child when it matters.

Please take a few minutes to watch the PSA:

Watch “Autism and Wandering: Stop, Seek, Stay” here.

Then share it.

Not because I produced it.

Share it because the person who watches it today may be the person who recognizes someone’s child tomorrow.

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The video teaches three simple actions:

Stop. Do not assume the child is misbehaving or belongs to an adult nearby.

Seek. Look for identification and contact law enforcement.

Stay. Remain with the child until help arrives.

Simple information.

Life-and-death information.

NCMEC continues to warn that autistic children who elope may move toward water, roadways, trains or other places connected to a special interest. Some have limited or no speech, may not respond when their names are called and may hide from rescuers or loud noises. The organization reports that drowning often occurs only a few hundred feet to half a mile from where the child disappeared—and within minutes. (Missing & Exploited Children)

On June 18, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 359.

The law names the state’s emergency notification the Joshua Alert. When a missing child has autism or another developmental disability and meets the state’s danger criteria, local law enforcement must immediately notify the statewide emergency alert program.

The legislation passed both chambers unanimously and takes effect September 17, 2026. (Ohio House of Representatives)

That matters.

Under the prior law, an agency generally was not required to notify the statewide program during the first 24 hours.

Joshua’s law closes that gap for qualifying children with developmental disabilities.

Seconds matter when a child does not recognize danger, may not respond to their name and may move toward water or traffic.

Jonisa Cook did what mothers are so often forced to do.

She carried her private catastrophe into public rooms. She repeated the worst story of her life until lawmakers understood what the system had failed to understand while Joshua was alive.

The law deserves celebration.

The pattern deserves scrutiny.

We should not need a dead child’s name before an emergency system learns urgency.

Parents and caregivers: ask your local police department what happens when an autistic person goes missing.

Ask which alert can be activated.

Ask whether a vulnerable-person registry exists.

Ask whether dispatchers and officers have been trained to recognize autism.

Ask whether nearby water will be searched immediately.

During an emergency, say what is true:

My child is autistic.

My child has limited or no functional speech.

My child does not recognize danger.

My child may not respond when called.

My child is drawn to water.

The responsibility should never rest on a frightened parent alone. But until every system is prepared, the words we use may change the response.

Joshua’s name will now move across Ohio faster than the system moved for him.

That is what his mother built from grief.

We owe her more than applause.

We owe every family a system that is ready before the next child is missing.

And we owe every child a community that knows what to do when they are found.

Please watch the PSA. Then share it.

#JoshuaAlert #AutismSafety #WanderingPrevention #DisabilityPolicy #FirstResponders #AutismAdvocacy #HollyRobinsonPeete

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