Ava Little Eagle, a 12-year-old girl who went missing on August 19, 2025, in Omaha, Nebraska, was found alive on Friday, August 23, 2025, in Council Bluffs with a 30-year-old man. Although no official Amber Alert was issued for her disappearance, missing persons reports circulated widely on social media. Ava is one of the fortunate children to have safely recovered. Had an Amber Alert been issued, she might have been found sooner, potentially reducing her exposure to various dangers.

Each year, nearly 460,000 children go missing in the United States. However, not every case is reported or investigated. One of the most well-known tools for recovering missing children is the Amber Alert—but how effective is it, and how often are young people actually given one?

Shockingly, less than 1% of missing children are covered by an Amber Alert. When will students know about missing peers? Or will the media have to push it for it to be actually known? For an Amber Alert to be issued, the following criteria must be met, according to the Amber Alerts website:

1. There is reasonable belief by law enforcement that an abduction has occurred.
2. Law enforcement believes the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death.
3. There is enough descriptive information about the victim and the abduction for law enforcement to issue an Amber Alert to assist in the child’s recovery.
4. The abduction involves a child aged 17 years or younger.
5. The child’s name and other critical data, including the Child Abduction flag, have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system.

In Nebraska, the law defines anyone under 18 as a minor. Yet for some reason, 17-year-olds are sometimes considered “too old” for an Amber Alert. This inconsistency endangers their life.  They should provide the information that they have about the child. It’s not something to shrug off. 

There should be an amber alert for EVERY child that goes missing. Amber Alerts should be broadcast widely across the state, with as much detail as possible about the child and the abduction, whether it was a parent, a runaway, or not.

The Numbers in Nebraska
In Nebraska alone, 234 children are currently missing, with only 19 classified as active cases. The average age of these children is between 14 and 17 years old. While some may be runaways, many may not—and after the first 48 hours, the risk of death rises. Research shows that 89% of abducted children who are killed had died within those first two days. 

Even if a child survives, they face other serious dangers like homelessness, physical or sexual abuse, and human trafficking.  

Why Some Alerts Are Denied
Authorities may decline issuing Amber Alerts in situations like custody disputes or runaway cases. There are several reasons why Amber Alerts may not be issued in certain cases, such as parental custody disputes or runaway situations. While this may seem reasonable, parents’ intentions are not always clear, and runaways can still be abducted or harmed.

The  National Child Protection Task Force warns: “Every child who disappears faces serious risks: exploitation, trafficking, and harm that grows each minute they’re away.”

A Call to Action
Children will never stop going missing—and neither should we stop looking for them. There should be dedicated task forces for missing children, just as there are for drugs or gangs. Both problems claim the lives of America’s future, but only one gets that kind of specialized response. 

What has and will happen to the children who never get reported missing by anyone? Will they ever be found? 

And what about the kids who are never reported missing? Their stories remain unknown, the data unrecorded. Parents will go to unimaginable lengths to find their children, but without a consistent and strong system in place, too many futures will remain missing.