Will charges be filed after a 2-year-old was left alone on a daycare bus?
Hempstead - A couple of investigations are underway after a 2-year-old girl was reportedly left on a daycare bus in Waller County and the mother says the facility didn’t notify her.
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CPS and the Hempstead Police Department are both conducting investigations after the Children’s Choice Daycare in Hempstead left 2-year-old Arely Valdez alone on a bus.
"This is something huge. She could have died, and they failed to inform me," says Arely’s mom Esmeralda Cruz.
When the 2-year-old returned from a field trip Tuesday with Children’s Choice Daycare in Hempstead, her mom says a manager told her, "everything went great. She proceeded to show me two pictures of my daughter where she looked happy at the library."
Cruz found out her 2-year-old had actually been forgotten on the daycare bus in the Texas heat, when another parent called her that night.
"If I wouldn’t have found out from other parents were they even going to tell me anything?"
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Cruz says the Children’s Choice Daycare owner and manager confirm Arely was left on the bus and was crying when someone went to get her. She says no one seems certain how long her daughter was alone there.
"She said well it could have been from 20 to 30 minutes, but they weren’t sure, and then the final time I spoke with the owner she said that everybody said from 10 to 12 minutes".
When I called the daycare and asked for the owner the woman I spoke with told me the 2-year-old was left for 6 minutes on the bus. Then she hung up.
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Children’s Choice Daycare in Hempstead has been cited 16 times by state inspectors for things such as having cleaning bottles in reach of children and an insect nest growing on the kids’ play equipment.
Cruz says she’s thankful her daughter wasn’t injured.
"It should have never happened. They failed to properly do their job".
The Hempstead Police Chief says his department is investigating and will turn its findings over to the Waller County District Attorney's Office for review at the conclusion of their investigation, to see if anyone will be charged.