Kids ID Cards Available At August 1 Event at Kohl Children's Museum

A free Kids’ Identification and Safety Seat (K.I.S.S.) event will be held at the Kohl Children’s Museum in Glenview on August 1. Hosted by the Illinois Tollway and Illinois State Police District 15, parents, grandparents and caregivers are invited to stop by from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day to create kids’ identification cards and get help with child safety seat inspections.

The museum will offer a variety of children’s activities and $2 off admission for those who participate in the event. Safety seat inspections will take place in the museum’s parking lot, while kids’ I.D. cards will be processed inside. Kids also can climb aboard a Highway Emergency Lane Patrol (H.E.L.P.) truck and get behind the wheel of a 26-ton Illinois Tollway snowplow at the Tollway’s touch-a-truck exhibit.

“The Illinois Tollway and Illinois State Police District 15 are committed to keeping children safe while on the road and making sure that child safety seats are installed properly is a big part of that effort,” said Illinois Tollway Executive Director Greg Bedalov. “Illinois State Police have found that approximately 90 percent of child safety seats they inspect are improperly installed, so we offer free K.I.S.S. events as a way to assist and inform parents, grandparents and caregivers about child safety.”

K.I.S.S. events offer parents and caregivers the opportunity to have ID cards created for children age 3 and older. Specially trained professionals take kids’ photographs and fingerprints and gather vital information to include on three personal ID cards – one for home and two for a wallet or purse. Neither Illinois State Police nor the Illinois Tollway keeps this information in a database. Once the ID card is issued to the guardian, the information is deleted.

In 2014, the Tollway and District 15 successfully teamed up to host 13 K.I.S.S. events throughout the region. Altogether, a total of more than 240 child safety seats were inspected and nearly 500 kids’ identification cards were issued last year.

To participate in K.I.S.S. events, parents and caregivers should bring child safety seats, children and the vehicle in which the child safety seats will be installed. Information on recalls and recall detection, correct positioning, correct sizing to protect the child most effectively, plus additional safety information and resources will be offered at these events.