JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After two children with autism drowned in Jacksonville retention ponds this month alone, a state lawmaker is drawing attention to legislation that aims to help monitor children who may have communication difficulties and be at risk of wandering.
Sponsored by State Rep. Wyman Duggan (R-Jacksonville), the Florida program Project Leo, which provides free personal search-and-rescue devices to people at risk of wandering, is back in state law and funded under legislation that went into effect July 1.
The project, which was reenacted this summer after first becoming law in 2016 and later expiring, provides free personal search-and-rescue devices to people at risk of wandering, including children with autism.
The small, wearable trackers — typically worn on the wrist or ankle — use radio-frequency signals to help locate a missing person.
In early August, a 7-year-old boy wandered from his Northside home and was later found in a neighborhood pond. On Aug. 24, a 3-year-old girl was reported missing from a Northside townhome complex and was found in a nearby pond. Both children had wandered from home.
Duggan says The Centers for Autism and Related Disabilities, known as CARD, will determine who’s eligible for the device, but JSO will be responsible for distributing the device to the selected families.
“That way the telemetry from the device goes to JSO, and they can track the child,” Duggan said.
The program is named after Leo Walker, a boy with autism who wandered from his home in 2014 and drowned.
The National Autism Association says nearly half of children with autism are at risk of wandering from a safe setting, and more than a third of those who wander are never or rarely able to tell anyone their name or address. The association reports accidental drowning accounts for 71% of deaths when a child with autism wanders, followed by traffic injuries at 18%.
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.