HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A parent is concerned after two toddlers went missing at a daycare Monday morning. The daycare “greatly regrets” the situation.
On Tuesday, Dec. 5, a concerned parent, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed concerns after learning two 3-year-old children went missing while in the care of Skipwith Academy daycare located in Lauderdale Square.
On Monday, Dec. 4, the daycare sent the following statement to parents:
“In full transparency, we want to inform all families of an incident which occurred this morning. We did have two of our students separate from their class and teacher while returning to playground after a nature exploration activity. When the teacher conducted their standard name to face to ensure all children were accounted for, it was noticed two children were no longer with the group. A search was initiated and the children were located. At this time we are conducting a full investigation and will move forward in ways that will prevent such an incident from reoccurring.”
Skipwith Academy
According to Skipwith Daycare, a teacher took 10 students out of the fenced area of the facility to pick up sticks for a nature exploration activity. During that time, the teacher lost track of two children who wandered off in the nearby neighborhood.
The teacher realized the two children were missing after conducting a head count before bringing the children back inside, and called their parents to inform them.
According to Henrico police, they do not have a call for service from the daycare — however, they did receive a call around 9:30 a.m. on Monday morning from a group of parents walking in the neighborhood who located the missing children 500 feet from the daycare.
The toddlers were found at the intersection of Broadford Lane and Rutgers Drive and were brought back to the daycare. According to police, an employee from the daycare was on scene when officers arrived. No police report was filed for this incident based on the information the officer obtained from all parties on scene. The entire incident lasted about 20 minutes.
On Tuesday, Dec. 5, the daycare issued the following statement to 8News:
Skipwith Academy at Lauderdale greatly regrets the incident that occurred at our daycare facility on Monday, December 4. The teacher who was with the children violated our company policy and has been terminated. We are grateful the incident was resolved without any injury and have communicated openly with our families. We intend to use this incident as a teaching moment for other employees as we remind everyone of our policies and procedures and the critical importance of safety first.
Skipwith Academy
Following the termination of the teacher, the parent told 8News they feel much better knowing the teacher responsible is no longer with the daycare and their family can take a sigh of relief.
Police are not actively investigating this incident.
