5-year-old girl left alone on KinderCare bus in Arlington Heights: ‘She could have died’
The Illinois Department of Children and Families Services said Thursday it has opened an investigation into how a 5-year-old girl was left in a cold bus for hours outside her day care in Arlington Heights.
Officials at the day care facility, KinderCare, 1003 S. Arlington Heights Road, confirmed two employees have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.
Parents of the 5-year-old told ABC 7 Chicago the KinderCare bus picked her up from school Tuesday afternoon, but she never got off the bus. It wasn’t until nearly three hours later when the girl’s mother came to pick her up that she was found asleep on the bus in the day care’s parking lot.
“Her body was limp,” Caitlynn Gonzalez told ABC 7. “I had to carry her almost unconscious body out of the bus.”
Added father Wamui Mwiya: “She could have died. She could have died today. She could be dead.”
Arlington Heights police Chief Nick Pecora said the incident was reported to police just before 6 p.m. Tuesday, after the mother arrived to pick her daughter up and day care staff members couldn’t account for the child.
Pecora said the girl had some winter clothing on, but was cold to the touch and reported by the mother to be unresponsive.
The fire department took the child to Northwest Community Hospital, where she was treated and later released.
Temperatures hovered around the teens Tuesday evening.
A KinderCare spokesperson said a staff member involved in the incident and the center’s director are both away from the day care on administrative leave. KinderCare reported the issue to the state and local police, and are working with both agencies “to determine what happened and what can be done to prevent this from happening again,” the spokesperson said.
“Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the children in our care. We have strict safety protocols specific to bus safety that should have prevented this kind of situation. Unfortunately, those protocols were not followed,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Pecora said police plan to interview the girl once she has had adequate time to recover. He left open the door to possible criminal charges, saying the case remains an active investigation.
· ABC 7 Chicago contributed to this report.