ROANOKE RAPIDS — In this day and age, child safety is on the minds of a

school staff, students and Ident-A-Kid Services of America were doing

something for peace of mind.

"It's not hard to think about child safety in these times," says

Manning Principal Andy Kennedy. "It seems like in the broadcast media

they're always talking about missing children."

In reaction to this concern, Kennedy held Child Safety Day at Manning

Elementary on Wednesday. The centerpiece of this effort was the

Ident-A-Kid program.

"It's a national program," explains Jason Ferrell, photographer for

Ident-A-Kid. "The purpose of the company is to make identity cards

based on information we gather at schools we go to, information

including height, weight, fingerprints and of course photo."

The resulting card, called the Child Rescue Identification Program

card, may then be carried by parents or anyone else who spends a lot of

time with the child. If the child goes missing, the card can be shown

to law enforcement to accelerate the process of recovering the child.

"Hopefully they'll never be used," Ferrell states. "What they

accomplish is giving peace of mind to parents in this day and age. You

can never be too safe. These cards give parents a quick reference guide

available if need be."

While the program gathers information digitally, making the process

very quick, there is new technology coming to enhance the information's

purposes. "We're in the process of getting new software which will

allow parents to pull up information on cell phones," Ferrell says. If

a child disappears at a large gathering, for example a baseball game,

the parent could then e-mail the digital card to law enforcement or

anyone else at the game. Such a feature could lead to much quicker

recoveries. "Time in an emergency situation is of the essence," Ferrell

says. The new technology should be available in early 2010.

Ident-A-Kid serves a large chunk of the area, with the nearest office

in Goldsboro. "We cover about 10 counties in and around Raleigh,"

Ferrell clarifies. "Halifax is about as far as we go. We have about 400

schools that we deal with."

If your child is no longer in elementary school, Ident-A-Kid will still

make a card for that child. Ferrell says some of the program's clients

are middle schools. "Only in middle school it's not called the Child

Rescue Card, it's called the Pre-Driver ID Card. And the student has

the option whether or not to include (his or her) weight."

Ident-A-Kid goes to each school they serve once a year normally.

Processing the cards takes about two weeks.

The program will also take a picture of any student's sibling. "Parents

may also bring siblings who may not attend the school," Ferrell says.

"They can come through my line, it's no problem, I've got extra forms. 

We do everyone from infants to pre-teens."

Kennedy agrees the service has great value to the students and parents.

"We try to extend this idea of trying to keep our children safe. It's a

little peace of mind, if nothing else."

If your child missed Safety Day this week, Kennedy says not to worry,

"We try to do this a couple of times a year in case a parent misses it

or changes their mind. So we'll do this again in the spring."

lot of people. At Manning Elementary School Wednesday morning, the