Day care left child in van for an hour, parents say

An El Paso man told ABC-7 the Power Kids Learning and Daycare Center left his son in a hot van for an hour earlier this month.

The father said the center takes kids on field trips several times a week and when he went to pick up his child they told him his son wasn’t there.

Someone at the day care allegedly told the father someone else had picked up his son or the boy wasn’t brought to day care that day.

The father said it wasn’t until another child said ‘no he was on the bus’ that staff ran out and found him in the day care van.

The father said his child had been in the van an hour and was drenched in sweat.

A spokesperson with Family Services and Protection confirms the child was left in the van and they are investigating the incident.

“We are looking at the whole incident, how did it happen, we’re finding out which staff were involved and we are looking at the system that the day care had in place to make sure kids don’t get left in vans,” said Paul Zimmerman, spokesman for Family Services and Protection.

ABC-7 went into Power Kids Daycare and spoke to the owner, who did not want to comment.

Zimmerman told ABC-7 that if the day care is found to be at fault, is staff could lose child care privleges.

The employees could also be designated as perpetrators and not be able to work at day cares anymore.

ABC-7 checked the temprature for the day the child was allegedly left inside the vehicle. It was in the low 90s.

“If you’re a parent, there’s a deep trust that you have in a place that you leave your child long hours everyday,” Zimmerman said, “And an incident like this is, obviously, very scary and can be very dangerous in hot summer weather.”