11 day cares in Va. left children behind since January 2007

Employee carelessness, lapses in judgment and a blatant disregard for procedures led to children being left behind in vehicles at 11 day-care centers in Virginia over the past 2½ years, including five in the Richmond region, state records show.

The children were left anywhere from a few minutes to seven hours in incidents in which one child died and 10 others were potentially endangered, according to records provided by the Virginia Department of Social Services in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The only fatality occurred July 6 in Richmond, when 13-month-old Andrew Joseph Johnson died of heat exposure after being left in a Yellow Brick Road Day Care and Learning Center van for more than seven hours. The center's owner and her son, who was driving the van, were indicted last week in the child's death.

No children were seriously hurt in the 10 other incidents dating to January 2007, but four were left forgotten in vehicles for more than an hour. One was left alone for five hours.

They ranged in age from 13 months to 8 years, and eight of the facilities involved were fined $500 by the state, according to the state records.

Three of the 11 day-care centers have since closed; none was forced to do so by the state.

The 11 incidents involve a fraction of 2,530 child day-care centers licensed in Virginia.

Day-care center operators cited for leaving children in vehicles said most of the violations occurred when employees failed to follow written procedures to account for each child getting on or off a van or bus. Many of those negligent employees were fired, they said, and other corrective measures were taken.

Aside from the Richmond case, the most serious local incident involved the now-defunct School Kids-N-Us center at 4338 S. Laburnum Ave., state records show. A 5-year-old child was left inside a closed bus for five hours in 93-degree heat after being transported with other children to the Battery Park swimming pool in Richmond on July 9, 2007.

In that incident, a mix-up in counting and transporting 28 children in two mini-buses led to one child being left behind, the state inspector reported. Employees said they failed to match children's faces to their names during a head count, and one employee failed to walk to the back of the bus to ensure no children were aboard.

A child had fallen asleep in a rear seat and wasn't discovered until the children who had been swimming returned to the buses. The neglected child was not sweating or crying when found, was immediately given liquids and was checked medically by the owner, also a licensed practical nurse. The employee who failed to check the bus was fired.

According to the state, the other area cases include:

The now-closed KinderCare Learning Center at Chippenham, 7040 Forest Hill Ave., which left a 6-year-old child in a van for about 40 minutes on Nov. 24, 2008. The driver failed to conduct a name-to-face child count after arriving at the center with a number of children. One child was left behind after falling asleep, and the driver didn't discover the child was aboard until traveling to a gas station to refuel. The child remained on the bus while the driver filled up, also a violation. The driver was fired.

Childtime Learning Center/Windmill Watch, 8226 Windmill Watch Drive in Mechanicsville, which left a 4-year-old child in a bus for 10 minutes on March 10, 2008. Employees failed to conduct a name-to-face count of the 11 children aboard and did not walk through the bus to ensure everyone got off. About 10 minutes later, the child left behind was found standing on a sidewalk without shoes, crying and knocking on the locked front door of a gym where the children were taken for a field trip. Employees involved in the incident were fired.

Amy Popp, a spokeswoman for the Childtime chain, said in a prepared statement that strict policies regulating child transportation were not followed. "We immediately conducted additional trainings with our staff . . . and took swift action in accordance with our zero-tolerance policy in the aforementioned event."

James Child Development Center, 4224 Branchester Parkway in Prince George County, which left a 6-year-old child asleep in a van for between five and 10 minutes on May 25, 2007. The driver failed to check each seat before leaving with the other children, and a teacher did not conduct a head count of the children who entered the center. The child's parent, also a teacher at the center, noticed the child wasn't inside and rechecked the van with the driver. The child was found before the center's backup plan was followed, which calls for a second head count and roll call in classrooms. The state fined the center $500, but the owner appealed and a circuit court judge ruled in the center's favor.

Owner Bill James said the state didn't give the center credit for finding the child before implementing its backup procedures. "The final check hadn't been done yet," he said.

Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or mbowes@timesdispatch.com.

These violations occurred outside central Virginia, according to Virginia Department of Social Services records:

Great Beginnings Early Learning Center, now closed, Stafford County, which left an 8-year-old child in a van for five hours in May 2007. A van driver failed to follow the policy for verifying that everyone had left the vehicle, and left the child unattended from 9:10 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. The child was not properly restrained by a safety belt and fell asleep on the back seat. The driver was fired.

KinderCare Learning Center, Woodbridge, which left an 8-year-old child in a bus with closed windows in 90-degree heat for 30 minutes on Sept. 7, 2007. The driver checked only the first few aisles of the bus and missed the sleeping child. The driver was fired.

Beth Woodward, spokeswoman for the KinderCare chain, said the center then started a new procedure called Name the Face, which requires employees to match children's faces with their names when they are being picked up, after arriving at the center, after entering the lobby and after entering the classroom. "Since that time, we haven't had any other incidents," she said.

Salem Family YMCA, Virginia Beach, which left a kindergarten student asleep on a bus for 90 minutes on Jan. 9, 2008. The van was parked with its door open in front of the building, and the child wasn't discovered missing until he woke up and walked inside. The employees involved were fired.

Terri Reedy, vice president of marketing for the Salem YMCA, said the driver manually bypassed an alarm system that sounds after the van's ignition is shut off, which normally forces the driver to walk to the back of the bus to shut it off. "Since then, we did a lot of training around it, and we all take oaths to make sure our children are safe."

Texie Camp Marks Children's Center, Franklin, which left a 23-month-old child alone on a bus for three to five minutes on two separate occasions on April 6, 2009. The driver was unaware that he had left the child, who was spotted by another employee.

Jeff Zeigler, community-relations coordinator for Texie Camp, said the driver was immediately fired and the center revised its policy by adding a daily checklist for drivers.

KinderCare Learning Center at Braemar, Bristow, which left a 6-year-old child in a locked bus for at least one hour in 80-degree heat during a field trip to a miniature golf course on July 24, 2008. The driver failed to walk through the bus after leaving with the other children.

KinderCare spokeswoman Woodward said all employees were retrained in child transportation procedures and the driver was fired

Abingdon Child Development Center, Abingdon, which left a 5-year-old child on a bus for about 50 minutes on May 26, 2009. The driver walked back two or three rows of seats and yelled, "Is there anybody else on the bus?" before turning and walking out. The driver resigned.