photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Prairie Park Elementary School, 2711 Kensington Rd., is pictured on May 21, 2022.

Before teachers realized a 7-year-old child had gone missing from Prairie Park Elementary School, the child had walked more than a mile from the school, eventually being found barefoot near a large intersection.

The child’s mother said it took about 45 minutes before teachers realized her child, a first grader at Prairie Park, was missing, and an hour before the child was found. The mother, whom the Journal-World is not naming to protect the child’s identity, said her child’s absence was not noticed right away because it occurred while the class was moving from the regular classroom to another activity, and there is no policy to take attendance or do head counts throughout the school day.

“Clearly this is a gap,” the mother said. “My child could have died (that day). How do we change this?”

Among other concerns about how the situation was handled, the mother wants the district’s attendance and supervision policies for elementary students to change. The school district, for its part, said it recognizes the seriousness of what occurred and that it is examining its policies.

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The mother said that the incident, which occurred on May 10, began when her child left the line as the class was headed to “specials.” In addition to lunch, elementary students have four special periods that occur outside their regular classrooms: art, music, physical education and library. The mother said that because attendance is only taken at the beginning of the school day, the specials teacher assumed her child was absent.

The mother said her child, who has ADHD and can be impulsive, hid in the bathroom after leaving the line and then wandered around the school for about 20 minutes — being seen by two teachers during that time — before attempting to walk home.

Her child’s regular teacher realized the child was missing once the class returned from specials, at which time school was dismissing for the day. It was the child’s after-school program driver who informed the mother the child was missing, as opposed to the school, which also raised concerns for the mother.

The mother said the child’s father immediately began searching by car, and eventually found the child approaching the intersection of Haskell Lane and 31st Street, which is approximately 1.3 miles from the school. At that point, the mother said it had been approximately an hour since the child had left the line. In that time, the child had crossed Haskell Avenue and was preparing to cross another busy street when located.

“It was a 98-degree heat index that day, (the child) was barefoot and was about to step onto 31st Street,” the mother said, adding that her child apparently was without shoes because the child’s feet had become hot.

The mother said she first spoke to the school’s principal to figure out why it took so long for anyone to realize her child was missing.

“I said, ‘What’s the policy here for attendance? How did nobody notice that (my child) was gone for this long of a period of time?'” the mother said. “And the response that I got is, ‘We don’t really have policies other than taking attendance in the morning,’ and that seemed weird to me.”

The mother said she was surprised there was not a policy to take attendance or do a head count between transitions for specials or other activities, and that she contacted more people in the district because she didn’t want what her family experienced to happen to someone else. She said there was another issue earlier in the school year, when her child went home on the bus instead of attending an after-school club, and that the attendance policy did not ensure all children got to where they need to be.

“There’s a whole group of students in our district who are just like my child, who don’t get a 504 (accommodation plan) but need a little extra watching,” she said.

The mother said as she tried to get her concerns addressed, she sometimes felt shuffled back and forth. She said after raising the issue with the school principal and a district administrator, as well as receiving a phone call from Superintendent Anthony Lewis, it was suggested she also contact the school board, but the board’s response was that she needed to file a complaint with the district. The mother said after the Journal-World got in touch with the district about the incident, Lewis called her a second time.

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Lewis, in an emailed response, said that he shared the mother’s frustration and concern as superintendent and as a parent. He said there is nothing more important to the district’s schools than the safety of students, and that the district was investigating the incident.

“We will determine what happened and what didn’t happen,” Lewis said. “Staff also are reviewing supervision and attendance procedures. We will use the information we learn to make any necessary changes in procedures and training at our school and district levels to prevent anything like this from happening again.”

District spokesperson Julie Boyle confirmed that elementary schools do not currently take attendance for specials — P.E., art, music and library — but that the district is reviewing those procedures. She said middle and high schools take attendance each class period. She said when a child leaves a school campus without permission, the district’s policy is for staff to contact law enforcement and notify the child’s family.

Regarding the mother’s concerns about notification, Boyle said that from the information the district had gathered so far, staff initially didn’t know the child had left campus and were searching the building before calling the parent.

“When they didn’t find the child in the building, they contacted the parent,” Boyle said. “The parent had already heard about the search from the daycare provider, who had talked to a staff member outside at school dismissal time.”

Boyle said when Lewis followed up with the mother the second time, on Thursday, he shared his interest in meeting with her in person to hear her concerns and suggestions. The mother said Lewis discussed several possible policy and procedure changes with her, including attendance after every transition, and was setting up a meeting with her to discuss ideas.

Boyle said the district’s investigation into the incident is ongoing.