NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WPRI) — The North Kingstown School Department announced Friday that the driver and monitors responsible for leaving a 4-year-old boy unattended on a bus earlier this week have been fired.

North Kingstown Superintendent Kenneth Duva explained that the bus driver and monitors did not follow the district’s mandatory safety procedures.

Those procedures, he said, included “checking the bus upon route completion to ensure no child was left behind.”

Duva said the bus driver and monitors will also not be allowed to work for the district in the future.

The boy, who’s enrolled in the district’s extended school year program, got on the bus with other students Tuesday morning.

Duva said the child was unintentionally left alone on the bus by the driver and monitors after dropping the students off. The boy eventually got out on his own and was found wandering the bus yard on Fairway Drive by a district employee.

No charges have been filed against the driver or monitors at this time.

Duva said the district is now in the process of strengthening its safety procedures and protocols to ensure the safety of the students who are transported vis bus.

The district plans on re-training its bus drivers and monitors, as well as adding a “safety check and attendance protocol” that will coincide with school attendance records. Duva said the district is also exploring new technology add-ons for its buses, such as enhanced security cameras.

The boy was not injured, but Duva said that “does not negate the distress it may have caused the child and their family.”

“[The North Kingstown School Department] is committed to restoring the trust all families place in us through our actions and improvement steps, and remain committed to providing every child with safe and supportive education experience,” Duva said.

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