Every year, hundreds of thousands of calls are received at 9-1-1 centers across the country. Many of these callers are young children, some of whom may be frightened and alone. Unfortunately they are also unfamiliar with what to do and say once they have reached the 9-1-1 dispatcher.

For all the children who know when to call 9-1-1, how to call and what to say, there are countless others such as many newcomers to this country who lack even this fundamental knowledge, resulting in delays in getting emergency personnel to the scene... often with tragic consequences. On the other hand, too many calls to 9-1-1 public safety answering points are from young curious children or thrill-seekers who don’t understand the implications of their acts.

Wherever 9-1-1 exists in this country, children will benefit from an effective and comprehensive 9-1-1 education program. Unfortunately, no such complete program exists to assist adults in teaching critical emergency telephone skills to kids. And until such a program becomes available, 9-1-1-dispatched resources will continue to be unavailable to many children who desperately need help... and wasted by inappropriate calls that cause personnel and equipment to be misused.

Abandoned 9-1-1 calls have both public safety and economic impact. When complete information is not forthcoming from a 9-1-1 caller, emergency personnel and equipment are still dispatched, based on address information provided by 9-1-1 system technology. When public safety resources are diverted to respond to a false call, police, fire and medical responders are consequently unavailable for real emergencies. Besides temporarily depriving a community of critical emergency resources, a significant cost is associated with responding to non-emergency 9-1-1 calls.