A recent move by Texas school districts to provide families with child identification and DNA kits has sparked anxiety amid the horrifying backdrop that genetic material was needed by authorities to identify the fourth-grade victims killed this year in a shooting at a Uvalde elementary school.The kits are “the gift of safety to provide parents some peace of mind” if their child is ever abducted or runs away, said Kenny Hansmire, director of the National Child Identification Program, the organization partnering with the Texas Education Agency to distribute the kits through schools across the state, as required by a new state law.Use of the kits is entirely voluntary, per a statement from the Texas Education Agency, which added – emphasis the agency’s – “And to be clear … these kits are not for identifying the victims of mass casualty incidents.” Kits are ‘not in response to Uvalde,’ state senator says Still, the idea Texas schools would provide families with the DNA kits drew consternation, evoking reports parents of some Uvalde shooting victims had to provide their DNA to help authorities confirm their children were among the dead.Actor Matthew McConaughey had raised the horrific detail while speaking to reporters at the White House days after shooting in a call for gun control, saying, “Due to the exceptionally large exit wounds of an AR-15 rifle, most of the bodies so mutilated that only (a) DNA test or green Converse could identify them.” Politicians and critics have suggested the DNA kit program’s rollout was Texas officials’ attempt to sidestep meaningful gun control reform: In response to a Houston Chronicle article about the kits, Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate running against Gov.My hope is that these kits provide peace of mind to parents.” Campbell’s bill, SB 2158, introduced into the state education code a section requiring the Texas Education Agency to provide school districts with “inkless, in-home fingerprint and DNA identification kits” that could be distributed “on request to the parent or legal custodian” of any child between kindergarten and sixth grade, her office said."