Autism, Wandering, and Drowning Risk

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder face unique danger when missing, especially when the child has wandered or eloped from a safe location. Children who wander or elope are substantially more likely to enter water and drown, accounting for 87% of the 95 children and young adults recovered deceased in 2025. This alarming pattern and the extreme speed at which wandering becomes fatal requires a solid and prepared response from law enforcement, the community at large, and caregivers. This course will help you to understand the reality of wandering related deaths and discuss prevention and response strategies.

Why You Should Attend

• Understanding wandering and elopement behavior
• Learn indicators for extreme drowning risks
• Understand the role of community and caregivers in response to a missing child on the Autism Spectrum

Stay Engaged

We look forward to seeing you at our live event on April 2, 2026! While you wait, check out these ACA resources to dive into key insights, explore the trends shaping today’s camp challenges, and get a head start on the conversation.

• Step by Step: The Crucial Role of Walk-throughs in Camp Aquatic Safety
• Preparing for Risks for Summer
• Life and Autism: How Camps Can Support Campers and Staff on the Autism Spectrum

Meet the Presenter

Carly Tapp is the Program Manager for AMBER Alerts in the Missing Child Division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). A dedicated member of the organization for 18 years, Carly has spent nearly 15 of those years supporting and strengthening AMBER Alert operations across the nation. As NCMEC’s national subject matter expert on AMBER Alerts, Carly oversees secondary alert distribution, manages national AMBER Alert data collection, and serves as a key liaison to state clearinghouses, AMBER Alert coordinators, and federal partners such as FEMA. She played a central role in the adoption and implementation of Wireless Emergency Alerts for AMBER Alerts and has cultivated partnerships with dozens of organizations—including the United States Postal Service, Motel 6, and TikTok—to expand public awareness when a child is abducted. Carly began her career at NCMEC in the Call Center and later contributed to the Photo Distribution team, experiences that shaped her deep commitment to supporting children, families, and the professionals who work tirelessly on their behalf.
Since January 2025, Carly has also supported NCMEC’s autism wandering and elopement response initiatives, with a concentrated focus on cases where children are at extreme risk of drowning. In this work, she evaluates the use of alerting tools and emerging technologies to strengthen public-safety response, identify critical gaps, and support the rapid, coordinated actions needed in a race against time to save lives.
Carly holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from The Catholic University of America, where she was an award-winning member of the policy debate team. She also earned a Master of Science in Forensic Science and a certificate in Crime Scene Investigation from George Mason University, completing capstone research on differentiating postmortem and antemortem proximal decomposition of human head hair.