[Senate Report 115-200] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] 115th Congress } { Report SENATE 2d Session } { 115-200 ====================================================================== KEVIN AND AVONTE'S LAW OF 2017 _______ January 18, 2018.--Ordered to be printed _______ Mr. Grassley, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the following R E P O R T [To accompany S. 2070] [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office] The Committee on the Judiciary, to which was referred the bill (S. 2070) to amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, to reauthorize the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program, and to promote initiatives that will reduce the risk of injury and death relating to the wandering characteristics of some children with autism, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon, with an amendment, and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass. CONTENTS Page I. Background and Purpose of Kevin and Avonte's Law of 2017.........1 II. History of the Bill and Committee Consideration..................3 III. Section-by-Section Summary of the Bill...........................3 IV. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................5 V. Regulatory Impact Evaluation.....................................7 VI. Conclusion.......................................................7 VII. Changes to Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............7 I. Background and Purpose of Kevin and Avonte's Law of 2017 Autism, dementia, and other developmental conditions affect too many families in the U.S. Some of these families have experienced a loved one wandering away from a supervised setting due to their developmental condition. Kevin and Avonte's Law of 2017 will strengthen and enhance support for the many American families who have loved ones that go missing due to autism, Alzheimer's disease, or related conditions. The bill extends existing programs designed to assist in locating Alzheimer's disease and dementia patients. It also adds new support for people with autism. Families with developmentally disabled children and aging parents must cope on a daily basis with challenges that others do not face. Children with autism or seniors with Alzheimer's disease may wander away from their caregiver's supervision, sometimes with tragic results.\1\ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified one in sixty-eight children as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD),\2\ and up to a third of these children may wander away from a supervised setting.\3\ The Alzheimer's Association estimates that as many as one in three seniors will die with some form of dementia, and 60 percent of those with Alzheimer's or another form of dementia will wander.\4\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\See, e.g., Joseph Guan and Guohua Li, Characteristics of unintentional drowning deaths in children with autism spectrum disorder, Injury Epidemiology (2017) (citing reports of 23 fatal drowning incidents involving 18 boys and 5 girls with ASD in U.S. newspapers from January 2000 through May 2017), available at https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/321436452. \2\Semi-annual newsletter of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded Study to Explore Early Development (SEED) (Winter 2015), available at https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/documents/ga- seed-newsletter-13-508.pdf. \3\Catherine E. Rice et al., Reported Wandering Behavior among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or Intellectual Disability, 174, J. Pediatrics 232, 232-239 (2016). See also Catherine Rice, ``Wandering Among Children with Special Health Care Needs from the Pathways Survey,'' NCHS Conference (Aug. 7, 2012), available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ppt/nchs2012/SS-10_RICE.pdf. \4\Press Release, Alzheimer's Association, New Alzheimer's Association Report Reveals 1 in 3 Seniors Dies With Alzheimer's or Another Dementia (March 19, 2013), https://www.alz.org/national/ documents/facts