Wonderland Still Shut, Was on Probation for Two Prior Negligence Cases

remains closed as officials from the Department of Children, Youth and Families continue investigating after a child was left in a locked bus on last week — the third negligence incident for the day care center.

Kevin Savage, administrator for licensing and regulation for the DCYF said today that Wonderland was on probation at the time of Thursday's incident for the two previous incidents. In both cases, children managed to leave the center and wander off during the day.

"We decided to suspend the license because of a public safety issue and because they were not able to consistently supervise children appropriately," Savage said.

Wonderland Early Learning Center is licensed to care for 84 children and had about 100 enrolled. They maintained their capacity so that they never had more than 84 children in the building at any given time, Savage said.

Savage said it's very rare for a day care facility to have negligence incidents because "generally day care centers take supervision very seriously."

It's not that Wonderland doesn't take the matter seriously, however, Savage said.

It also has been revealed that the bus that the child was locked inside last week was not registered since last July.

The mother of the 6-year-old boy who was left in the van, Monique Pelletier, said that she received a phone call from her child's school that her boy did not show up for school.

It was the boy's third day at the center.

The daycare's owner, Jeffrey Swann, reportedly drove several children to Stadium School early that morning and didn't see the young Pelletier in the back seat. He then returned to the daycare facility and locked the bus before heading inside.

The boy was discovered some time later. Initially, it was reported that he was left on the bus for two hours, but Swann said it was more like 30 minutes. A teacher found the boy as she walked through the parking lot. Savage said investigators are piecing together a timeline and should be able to determine how long he was actually on the bus.

Savage said Wonderland took some "corrective actions" after the first two incidents.

"Generally the department doesn’t just shut someone down because of one incident," Savage said. "We do try to work with centers. It's a large center and involves a lot of people in the community."