I am amazed this happened. I work with special needs children on a school bus.
What should have happened is that one person should have a roll with a list of all children attending. When its time to leave this person stands at the bus door and each childs name is ticked off as they get on the bus. Once on the bus the door is closed and the person with the roll walks through the bus and ticks off the kids names again. Once back at the center the person with the roll gets off the bus first and as each child gets off the bus their names are checked off again. Before leave the center the bus staff should walk through the bus checking each and every seat.

The school here accidentally left a child at the pool (there were other kids who stayed there instead of going back to school as their parents were there). In the next newsletter they owned up to it and said they have sorted the issue so it won’t happen again. The child was looked after still, it was a bit scary that they didn’t account for every child.

I knew a girl with special needs that used to sneak home at lunch time and not be back in time for the first afternoon lesson. By the time she got home it was already time for the girl to have been back in class. They lived a fair way from the school. I don’t know how many times her Mum took her back to school. She always had her lunch and snacks that she chose in her school bag but hadn’t eaten them before she went home. Later the Education Dept. decided she would benefit more from going to a “special school” She then lived too far away to go home before she was picked up at the end of the school day. After the change of school they discovered they knew one of the teachers who discreetly watched the gate to make sure she didn’t try to leave school at lunch time.

Geez. I can’t believe there was no accountability. A roll call on the bus when leaving the childcare centre. And a roll call when all kids returning to the bus. Simple. I can’t believe this obvious and simple process was not followed. That poor child being left behind. Unbelievable.

Our school, head counts, then counts again. Then when on the bus do a final count. I just don’t understand how this can happen.

Maybe the old days were better when parents were the extra help for all excursions – no-one got left behind because we had a head count before leaving and before re-embarking on the bus to come home. They were our kids so we may have been more aware than the paid people are.

Oh wow, definitely sounds like their policies needed a review!

Any excursions my boys went on there was always a head count. It was always done before leaving the site of where they were. No-one was ever left behind. They need to set up better and safer rules for these children

Oh gosh, that is just terrible, they deserved to suffer the consequences. That poor child and the poor parents.

That is so bad! If that happened to my child i would be so angry! There is such a long process finding a child care that works for you and your children and to trust someone else with your child life and then they could go and do something like this! They are lucky nothing serious happened

ridiculous! Parents pay good money for childcare with the expectation that they are safe and well cared for. Anything could have happened they are only lucky that it didn’t!

As a teacher, I know how scary it is going on an excursion. I think I do more than the necessary amount of head checks throughout. Furthermore, the other staff do the same – even if they are not responsible for it.

that is horrible! I know my kindergarten counts the children regularly even with in the center, my son has his first excursion with them this week

My Daughter escaped from her preschool once and made her way 1km home with a stranger that picked her up off the street. I called them half hour after she arrived home and they didn’t know she was even missing.

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  • • musicmum replied
    • 28 May 2019 , 12:42 am

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  that is so scary lucky it was a nice stranger

Poor little boy,

This is so scary for both parents and the little boy.

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  • • mom93821 replied
    • 28 May 2019 , 6:54 am

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  I bet – hopefully this never happens again.

There should always be a written record and heads should always be counted and checked again.

Glad everything worked out well and nothing bad happened.
You can’t count too often at an excursion !
To be left unsupervised at age 5,5yr at an event like this, must have been quite scary !

Just terrifying to hear this as a parent as the child could’ve been kidnapped or injured

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  • • Ellen replied
    • 28 May 2019 , 8:11 am

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  Exactly !

Oh my goodness that’s terrible! I feel for that little boy that would’ve been so terrifying for him and I can understand why the parents would’ve been angry and upset at this happening. Not good at all