Know Your Child

Keep printed records of any medical conditions, required medications, and current dental records.

Have current video and/or photographs of your child in a variety of poses and expressions.
You may consider the options of fingerprinting or using a blood/hair sample kit for DNA identification.
Know your child’s friends and their families. Get to know their names, their addresses, phone numbers, etc.
Before you allow your child to go to the home of one of their friends, you should learn who lives in the house or visits frequently.
Before you allow your child to stay for the weekend at a friend’s home you should know who will be caring for the child. At any time will there be a babysitter. You should familiarize yourself with the area so you know how to get there or how give directions to another party if necessary.
Familiarize yourself with your child’s schedule. Know where and how they spend their day.
Know your child’s preferred route to school, playground, store, etc.
Ensure your child knows they can call you at any time if plans have changed or if they need you to pick them up.
Get to know the child’s teachers and any clubs they might belong to.
Make sure schools, daycares, babysitters, etc., have updated relevant information on you including pick-up person, contact information, current address, vacations planned, etc.
Do a background check on babysitters, daycares, after school programs, camps, etc., before registering your child.

As you can see, many of these safety tools are dependant on you and your child feeling comfortable talking about anything and everything. You need to reinforce to your child that you love them and you would never leave them. You need to encourage them to communicate anything unusual that someone may tell them. They need to know that you care about what is happening in their life and that you are truly interested in knowing about them.