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115th Congress } { Report
SENATE
2d Session } { 115-200
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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\
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\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
