5-Year-Old Found After Being Locked in Arka Montessori Daycare Bus for More Than Two Hours

FORNEY, TX – A 5-year-old girl was found locked inside a daycare bus after spending more than two hours in the vehicle on a triple-digit Texas day, according to FOX 4.

What happened in Forney highlights a danger that continues to put children at risk across the country. Kids and Car Safety recorded 38 child hot-car deaths in 2025. The organization’s data also shows that more than half of child hot-car deaths happen after a child is unknowingly left inside the vehicle.

For young children, being forgotten inside a daycare bus or van can quickly become a life-threatening emergency. That is why daycares that transport children are required to have safeguards in place to account for every child and make sure no child is left behind.

The Button Law Firm (BLF) is not involved in this case, but as daycare and child injury attorneys, our team understands how dangerous transportation and supervision failures can be for young children. We represent kids in daycare and child injury cases to help them get life-changing results and justice against bad daycares, schools, and companies that abuse and neglect the safety of children.

What FOX 4 Reported About the Forney Daycare Incident

FOX 4 reported that the 5-year-old was picked up from school by a bus operated by Arka Montessori in Forney. The young girl fell asleep during the ride and was not accounted for when the bus arrived at the daycare.

She was trapped inside the locked bus for more than two hours on a triple-digit Texas day, alone and without the adults responsible for her realizing she had been left behind.

The daycare did not recognize that the 5-year-old was missing. It was only when her older sister arrived to pick her up that the family learned she was missing. Her mother and sister began frantically searching the daycare campus until they saw the red bandana the girl had been wearing that morning through the window of the bus.

The young girl was taken to the hospital and treated for dehydration.

The impact did not end with her physical symptoms. Her father told FOX 4 that the experience has changed how his daughter reacts to the daycare. She no longer wants to see the building and calls it a bad place.

Hot Vehicles Can Become Deadly for Children

Kids and Car Safety has documented at least 1,173 child hot-car deaths in the United States since 1990. Its data shows that children being unknowingly left inside vehicles make up more than half of these deaths.

In 2025 alone, the organization recorded 38 children who died in hot vehicles.

Children are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat, and temperatures inside a parked vehicle can become dangerous very quickly. Because of these risks, Texas daycares are subject to minimum standards governing how children are supervised, transported, and accounted for when daycare vehicles are used.

These requirements exist to prevent a child from disappearing from a daycare’s supervision during transportation. When a daycare picks up a child, there should be a clear record of the child boarding the vehicle, getting out, and safely reaching the person responsible for receiving them.

A child should never be able to remain unnoticed inside a daycare vehicle for hours.

How Should Daycares Prevent Children from Being Left in Hot Vehicles?

Daycare transportation safety cannot depend on a caregiver assuming every child got off the bus.

Texas minimum standards establish requirements for transporting and accounting for children in daycare vehicles. Daycares need procedures that allow staff to know exactly which children boarded, personally confirm that each child exited, and ensure no child remains inside after the trip.

That includes face-to-name checks, accurate transportation records, and a physical sweep of the entire bus or van after children exit. Sleeping children must be physically accounted for just like every other child, rather than relying on them to wake up, follow the group, or alert a caregiver that they are still there.

Transportation records and attendance should confirm that every child who was picked up actually made it inside the daycare. If a child is missing, staff should recognize the discrepancy immediately and determine the child’s whereabouts.

These safeguards create a clear chain of accountability from pickup to drop-off. At no point should there be uncertainty about where a child is.

What Should Parents Ask About Daycare Transportation Safety?

If your daycare or school transports your child, you deserve to understand the safeguards being used to account for them throughout the trip.

We created a list of questions families can ask their child’s daycare or school about transportation safety:

• How do you document which children get on and off the vehicle?
• Who completes the final physical sweep of the bus or van after every trip?
• What is your procedure for face-to-name checks?
• How do you verify transportation records against classroom or school attendance?
• What happens if a child who was transported does not arrive where they are supposed to be?

These questions can help families better understand how a daycare or school follows required safety procedures and prevents a child from being overlooked during transportation.

How Our Daycare Injury Attorneys Have Helped Families After Their Child Was Left on a Hot Daycare Bus

Our team has seen firsthand what a family can experience when a child is forgotten inside a daycare vehicle.

In one North Texas case, a young boy was left locked inside a daycare bus on a hot summer day after important transportation safety steps were skipped. When he was finally found, he was drenched in sweat, red-faced, hysterical, and suffering from heat exhaustion.

What happened affected him long after he was removed from the bus. He experienced severe separation anxiety, regression in developmental milestones, difficulty regulating his emotions, and a fear of becoming hot while riding in vehicles.

Our daycare injury attorneys helped his family understand how this happened. We investigated the daycare’s transportation procedures, the safety steps that were skipped, and the failures that caused him to remain locked inside the bus. Our team ultimately held the daycare accountable and secured a life-changing result that gave the family resources for his medical care, therapy, and continued healing.

Helping Families After a Daycare Transportation Failure

Being left inside a hot daycare vehicle will affect a child and their family long after the doors are opened.

At The Button Law Firm, we help families find answers about what happened, understand the safety failures that put their child in danger, and get access to the resources their child needs moving forward. When a daycare fails to protect the children entrusted to its care, our team works to hold it accountable and pursue the life-changing result that the family deserves.

If your child has been harmed because of abuse or neglect at a daycare, call The Button Law Firm at 214-699-4409, email intake@buttonlawfirm.com, or fill out our contact form to share your story or experience with our team.