Seville, FL - A Volusia county daycare worker is facing charges of child neglect after a 15-month-old girl and 3-year-old girl were found wandering near a busy intersection.
Deputies responded to a call about two unsupervised children being found at a Kangaroo convenience store near the intersection of N. US Hwy 17 and CR-304 around 9:38 on the morning of Wednesday, August 3rd.
A woman said she saw the two young girls walking through a parking lot towards the busy intersection , then ran to stop them from walking into the road. She asked where their mother was, but they were both too young to reply. The 3-year-old went into the store and the clerk called 911.
Around 10 to 15 minutes later someone from Little Panda's Child Development Center came into the store and said the kids were students at the facility.
Deputies made contact with 50-year-old Maria Navarro from Deland who was responsible for the kids when they went missing. Navarro told deputies that she did a headcount of all her students in the playground before bringing them inside. Once inside the classroom, she realized the pair were missing.
Navarro said she and other employees searched the school grounds frantically for the children, and that's when she noticed a gate had been left open outside. It was around this time that Navarro was informed by her coworker that the 2 kids had been found at the nearby Kangaroo.
The licensed director and owner of the daycare told deputies that nothing like this has ever happened before, and the gate leading from the school to the parking lot is usually closed. She also admitted that she doesn't send anyone out to check the gate regularly and it's used by everyone to enter and exit the parking lot.
Deputies determined that the young children were not properly cared for or monitored, and Navarro was responsible for the kids in her class.
The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) has been contacted and personnel from the agency will assess the children and daycare facility.
Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2016.
