The U.S. Department of Justice reports that an estimated 2,000 children are reported missing each day. While most are recovered quickly, there remains a great need to educate children – and their families and teachers – how to prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation. To fill this gap, Honeywell and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children created the Got 2B Safe Classroom Makeover Awards. The program, which recently launched its seventh year, annually recognizes teachers nationwide who develop the most creative abduction prevention lesson plans.  Five winners receive a classroom makeover worth $10,000 and 100 additional teachers win $500 worth of school supplies.  Makeovers include a comprehensive redesign of their classroom with themes chosen by the teachers and materials including the Got 2B Safe! Four Rules of Safety (please see below for the four rules).

The safety program focuses on educating eight- to ten-year-olds and their teachers and families on how to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation.  Since the program’s inception, Got 2B Safe! has been distributed to 240,000 principals and teachers, and more than 72,000 schools in the United States – reaching an estimated five million students.

The Got 2B Safe! Classroom Makeover Awards program will be open until April 13, 2012.  Educators can visit www.got2bsafe.com for information about the contest and to submit an essay emphasizing how they effectively taught their students the Got 2B Safe! Four Rules of Safety for a chance to win.