Railway Children is concerned by the findings of a National Crime Agency report around the potential misuse of this lesser categorisation, which indicates the missing person is not at risk.
The report, which looks at 2015/16 missing persons data, found that while some forces label all cases involving children with the higher priority category of "missing" this is not the case nationwide.
Andy McCullogh, Railway Children's policy and public affairs director, said: "It is worrying that the NCA report has identified some police forces to be still inappropriately classing all missing children from care only as absent, meaning the child is at ‘no apparent risk', when the reality is they could be at serious risk of harm.
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