After leaving a toddler on a bus for more than five hours in the heat of Central Queensland, two childcare providers avoided going to jail.
On Wednesday 19th July, a preschooler from regional New South Wales was supposed to be dropped off at their childcare centre in the morning, but she was instead left alone on the bus for four hours before someone noticed her.
On Friday, the 10th of March, a three-year-old girl was left on a daycare bus in Victoria for up to five hours. After being put on the bus outside of her home to attend the service, her parents received a call at 3 pm and allegedly told an Educator discovered the young toddler still on the bus in the afternoon.
In the last five years, at least 68 children have been left on buses in Australia, a rate of more than once per month.
While working at a Canberra childcare service, a 28-year-old man was accused of indecently assaulting two children and physically assaulting another, according to reports.
On 30 September 2021, 28 children attended a Perth museum on three 12 seater buses. An initial head was done when children arrived back at the service with only 27 children being accounted for. The educator assumed the child went home. At around 3:45 pm (2 hours later) the child was found locked inside one of the buses parked behind the service.
Citipointe Childcare has been recently fined $18,000 for an incident that happened on 22nd April 2021 when a 21-month-old child went missing after a bushland excursion.
It has been reported that earlier this week, a two-year-old girl has been found to roam around alone outside her childcare centre in Melbourne’s west. The toddler managed to escape her centre allegedly through an unlocked door.
In 2020-21 there were 20,599 incidents classified as serious across all childcare services, the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority data shows. This ranges from the death of a child (there were none in that year) to serious injury, trauma or illness, incidents where emergency services have to be called, or children being locked in or out or going missing.
A Perth childcare centre, in St George Terrace, has been fined $15,000 after conducting an emergency evacuation drill where three toddlers receiving second-degree burns to their feet.
