| Health maintenance and treatment are just one aspect | | | | DNA tests are the wave of the future because they |
| of overall healthcare. Manteno Illinois healthcare also | | | | provide the most reliable identification possible. |
| includes programs for helping police to locate children | | | | DNA testing is simply a matter of taking swabs of |
| who are missing from their families. The police of | | | | saliva from the child's mouth; this makes painful blood |
| Manteno, assisted by Manteno Parent-Teacher's | | | | samples unnecessary. Each child's parents receive a |
| Association members, recently began a campaign to | | | | sealed envelope from Manteno healthcare workers |
| assist in locating missing children. According to the | | | | which contains the swab with the DNA sample for |
| state police of Illinois, more than two thousand children | | | | their child. These swabs should be stored by the |
| were reported as missing last year. Across the nation | | | | parents in a dark, dry, cool place. The director of |
| there were almost eight hundred thousand children | | | | safety of the National Center for Missing and Exploited |
| reported as missing last year. Of this number, about | | | | Children, Nancy McBride, explained that DNA testing is |
| 25% were abducted by someone in their own family; | | | | considered to be the gold standard of available tools |
| and about 8% were abducted by someone outside | | | | to identify children who are missing. She said that it is |
| the family. The Manteno police department became | | | | terrific that the Manteno Police Department is providing |
| the first law enforcement agency in the area to | | | | this service and giving the children's parents the DNA |
| fingerprint children as a means of identification. | | | | samples for safekeeping. This way the privacy of the |
| Following the abduction and murders of two ten-year | | | | children and families is maintained. The DNA testing will |
| old children in 1983 from Bolingbrook and Naperville, the | | | | become more and more common since it is such a |
| Manteno police in April 1983 fingerprinted 240 Manteno | | | | useful and foolproof form of identification. For example, |
| children. | | | | according to a south Chicago Illinois healthcare |
| Last year all students in the School District of Manteno | | | | spokesperson, young men who are having babies with |
| were fingerprinted to establish child identity records. | | | | women to whom they are not married are advised to |
| This year DNA samples from all new primary and | | | | obtain DNA tests before acknowledging paternity of |
| preschool students in the School District of Manteno | | | | the children, because the Illinois Department of Public |
| were taken as the first step in the missing children | | | | Aid will order the men to pay child support even if later |
| location program. The Manteno Police believe that | | | | DNA tests should show that the child is not theirs. |