The day care center that accidentally left a toddler in a Brooklyn park after taking a field trip there Thursday has had its license suspended, officials say.
The city has yanked its license for Quality of Life Academy day care in Sunset Park, and city officials say they're working with parents to find alternate options for children enrolled there. The facility is closed until further notice.
The suspension comes a day after a 2-year-old boy named Ethan was found sleeping on a bench alone inside Sunset Park Playground. A good Samaritan brought him to the 72nd Precinct station house, where police sent a tweet asking for help locating the child's parents when no one claimed him after several hours.
He was later reunited with his mother, Diana Alvarado Huachi.
"It's unacceptable. You don't just lose a child," she said Friday, still stunned that the day care lost track for her son for six hours. The day care had apparently miscounted, going to the park with 15 kids and returning with only 14.
Huachi said a day care supervisor called her to let her know little Ethan was at the police station, leaving her was "speechless, scared, worried, nervous."
Neighbor Adriana Perez has a 2-year-old child of her own and couldn't imagine a trusted day care losing track.
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"There has to be way to enforce really good regulations in terms of how to take care of 15 kids," she said.
No one answered at the Quality of Life center either Thursday night or Friday. At least four times in the past three years, the day care was cited for violations, including failure to maintain required staff to supervise kids.
At Sunset Park Playground Friday, mothers watching their children were happy things ended well for Ethan.
"I'd be freaking out. But thank God he's good hands now, that's all that matters," said Deborah Menendez.
