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Palm Beach Kindergartener Left On School Bus

WEST PALM BEACH (CBS4) - Palm Beach County School District officials are looking into how a 5-year old boy was left on a school bus for two hours.

School district spokesman Nat Harrington said the kindergartener, who attends Benoist Farms Elementary, was found at the bus compound hours after he was supposed to have been dropped off at school. He was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center, checked out and then released to his parents.

Harrington said the bus drivers are supposed to check the buses before they leave the compound.
He did not say whether the driver would face discipline.

Last year Haile Brockington, 2, died after being left alone in a sweltering hot day care van in Delray Beach.

Former day care center employee Amanda Inman was charged aggravated manslaughter in Brockington's death. Police say Inman was driving the van that day and did not check to make sure all of the children had safely gotten out of the van.

The center's director Petra Rodriguez-Perez, 45, was also charged with aggravated manslaughter after a police investigation revealed that she and Inman signed transportation, attendance and meal logs that day all indicating that Brockington had attended the day care that day.

The daycare where Haile died, Katie's Kids, has since shutdown.

A bill sponsored by State Senator Maria Sachs would require all day care vans to install an alarm that forces the driver to walk through the van to turn off the alarm and make sure no children are left behind.

(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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