your plan sucks and your post does as well.

Think about it. Kids are kids...ie subject to parental authority and guidance because they lack mature decision making capabilities. You are proposing that they can operate in a stressful situation following some preset formula flawed by lack of knowing how things will play out, or from what direction the threat comes from.

One has to simplify and make it easy to understand.

For example, there is only one objective in a scenario where the grid goes down...finding and protecting the child.

Telling them to go home is stupid. No power at the house...house is under siege or on fire...what then.

No. Say the kid is in school. You TRAIN them where to go in the event all hell breaks loose. My kids went to school in a major metropolitan area of several million people. The school was 2 blocks from the lake. I trained my kids to go to the beach under the lighthouse since no one's natural inclination is to go swimming if things get ugly. I can also go in by boat and avoid the gridlock and panic. Of course, I had a boat at the ready.

All the kids had to do was make it two blocks to the beach and I could get them. No cell phone and no having to find their way home.

In conclusion, there is no magic solution. Scope out the area and make it easy to remember and comply.