Look 1^st surveyed over 7,600 organizations that serve children and youth to determine if they have a system to prevent and detect acts and conditions that every parent fears. Federal law requires all organizations, regardless of size or type, to have an effective alert system to prevent and detect criminal acts. Other authorities also recognize the importance:

• Law enforcement experts, supported by research from the National Institute of Justice, advise that alert systems prevent wrongful acts in organizations.
• The American Bar Association recommends that programs to report organizational problems avoid liability and are a best practice.
• Organizational experts advocate that every entity has a system that facilitates prompt, confidential notifications of what leaders “need to know.”

Virtually all parents want organizations to have an alert system to protect their children, although less than 10% of organizations have one.* This is twice the percentage in 2022. K-12 is the organization category closest to what parents want, with 79% having alert systems, followed by youth sports at 17% and youth employers at 16%. These three categories are responsible for the increase since 2022. Churches are the furthest from what parents want, with less than 1% having alert systems.

This disparity does not reflect uncaring organizational leadership but rather uninformed leaders. Understandably, many are initially reluctant to open themselves to anonymous claims; however, advanced alert systems handle false submissions. As more organizations implement alert systems and associations, groups, and accrediting programs address their importance, the pace of compliance will accelerate. Until they become ubiquitous, if parents want to entrust their children to an organization, they should verify that it has an alert system in place. Organizations that have an effective alert system should publicize it.

Parents’ nightmares seem to be in the news every week when we learn something horrible happened to a child in an organization that they trusted. And for every incident in the news, hundreds never become public knowledge. For all of them, the parents and the organization’s leaders were sure that such an incident couldn’t happen there. But without an alert system, these horrific and completely preventable incidents can and will continue to occur even in organizations that say, “never here.”

Effective alert systems also benefit organizations. They are as essential as fire and security alarms and prevent and detect defalcation, fraud, theft, bribery, safety, and security breaches, as well as authority figures having sex with minors, sexual harassment, assault, discrimination, and other violations of law, policies, and procedures. The more advanced the alert system, the more effectively it prevents wrongful acts and conditions, providing a foundation of trust.  Having a reporting system, like all other feedback categories, improves the performance of individuals and organizations. In addition, effective alert systems protect organizations and their leaders from legal actions.

Every US state, territory, and the District of Columbia has mandatory child abuse reporting and separate elder abuse reporting requirements. Although mandatory reporting is ineffective in most jurisdictions, it improves dramatically when properly integrated with an effective alert system.

Our name, the seals, and Guardian^SM, our alert system, are the product of volunteer parent initiatives enhanced by seminal and significant research and testing by organizations. Guardian^SM is the alert system most likely to prevent and the first to detect all wrongful acts and conditions. We operate Look1st.org as a public service to protect children and the elderly by providing systems and resources to prevent and detect organizational abuse and facilitating mandatory reporting.

Contact me for additional information about this research, special programs to protect children and the elderly, and Look 1^st guides and workshops.

*Based on a sample of 8,723 parents with a 99% confidence level and +/-2% margin of error and 7,630 organizations in 15 categories with a 95% confidence level and +/- 5% margin of error.