The Texas Education Agency (TEA), in partnership with the National Child Identification Program, is distributing DNA kits for children K-6th in Texas schools to help find kidnapped or runaway children for identification. These kits will then be given to parents, who will keep them at home, in the event their child has run away or is kidnapped, to quickly hand to police and investigator. While these DNA test kits are usually $10, the TEA is giving them to parents for free, if the parents so choose to take them.
The DNA kits have been being dispersed across Texas schools after a law was passed last year to help parents already have DNA identification in their homes for investigators.
According to Texas Senate Bill 2158, “The [TEA], shall provide to all school districts and open-enrollment charter schools inkless, in-home fingerprint and DNA identification kits to be distributed through the district or school on request to the parent or legal custodian of any kindergarten, elementary, or middle school student. [The] parent or legal custodian who receives a fingerprint and DNA identification kit may submit the kit to federal, state, tribal, or local law enforcement to help locate and return a missing or trafficked child.” This is now in the Texas Education Code.
The test kits are being distributed six months after the Uvalde shooting, leading people to see how this might be viewed as a way to identify children after school shootings or mass shootings, which is what had to be done to identify children in Uvalde.
However, the National Child Identification Program has been adamant to claim that the DNA kits are for children who have run away or been kidnapped. If that happens, parents will already have that identification at home to hand to the police and investigators rather than spending time filling them out at the police station.
The contents of the DNA kits will have the child’s DNA, fingerprints, current photo, physical description and identifying marks, and doctor’s number, according to the National Child Identification Program.