BILLINGS — A Billings mother is grateful after a Good Samaritan rescued her 3-year-old son after he escaped a downtown daycare.
The mother dropped her son off at The Learning Grove daycare at 3017 Third Ave. N. in downtown Billings Monday morning, only to later learn he had escaped from the facility.
Watch daycare teacher Grace Chancellor talk about the scary moment:
The toddler was discovered wandering the streets during the busy morning rush hour by a passerby, who brought him to safety at a nearby daycare.
Grace Chancellor, who works at Little Llama Learners daycare, was there when the woman arrived with the child.
"I was shocked by that, because I'm just like, you expect when you drop a kid off at daycare that they are taken care of," Chancellor said Wednesday.
The woman who found the boy had a concerned expression when she approached the daycare facility.
"She had a concerned face, so we let her in. And she asked if this was one of our kids, and she found him at the corner of the street," Chancellor said.
Staff at Little Llama Learners were worried about how long the child had been outside in the cold weather.
"We just weren't quite sure how long he was out there for, because he was really cold. His hands were cold, and so we were just very concerned on how long," Chancellor said.
The teachers at Little Llama Learners immediately took care of the boy while working to reunite him with his mother.
"We warmed him up because he was cold out there, and he got to play with the kids," Chancellor said. "We give our kids breakfast when they first come in, and so we weren't sure if he had anything. So we were just like, OK, there's some food and our kids treated him really good."
The owner of The Learning Grove daycare, Shelby Kuchinski, said she reported the incident to the daycare's licensing agency, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, which is conducting an internal review. She added that she is identifying the child, family or staff members involved, and appropriate disciplinary action is being taken.
"This incident has sparked meaningful changes within our organization, and we are dedicated to rebuilding trust, strengthening our systems, and upholding the highest standards of safety and care for every child in our facility," the statement read in part.
She added that the daycare has already "held staff meetings, implemented new training programs and (is) developing more comprehensive supervision and safety protocols."
Chancellor emphasized that children should not be able to escape from daycares with proper safety measures in place.
"There's no way for them to escape, because most daycares, you're either buzzed in or a teacher has to open the door for you, because it's locked on both ends," Chancellor said.
