A 3-year-old boy died in Houston, Texas, after he was left in a hot daycare bus for several hours following a field trip during the day. The toddler was only discovered on the van in the early evening when his father arrived to pick up his son who was not there. The child was found unresponsive in the vehicle outside the Discovering Me Academy in the 8000 block of Antoine after 6:30 p.m., said a release by the Harris County Precinct One Constable's Office. Investigators believe the child was in the van, which had an internal temperature of 113 degrees after deputies arrived on the scene, for at least three and a half hours. "It's just tragic," said Constable Alan Rosen in a statement. During the day, 28 students were taken on a field trip to Houston's Doss Park before returning to the daycare center at between 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. The constable's office said all children were accounted for on a register as arriving back at the daycare center, including the deceased child. Now deputies are speaking to the van driver and a chaperone to work out how such a tragedy could have occured. They are said to be cooperating with questioning. ABC-13 reported that records show the daycare was cited for several violations in 2015 about the van, including one for not having an electronic child safety alarm, which is used to notify a driver that a child was left in the vehicle. Two others include not reporting a wreck in a timely manner and a driver not knowing the number of children in her group. Constable Rosen warned those responsible for children to be careful in the searing heat of a Houston summer and make sure that vehicles are fully empty before leaving them. He recommended leaving a valuable or important item with a child, such as a cell phone or wallet, as an extra prompt for you to check the vehicle. "Do something that always reminds you that you have a loving package in the backseat of that car," Rosen said in a statement. Houston Police Department is investigating and the Harris County District Attorney's Office will decide on filing any criminal charges. The Discovering Me Academy did not respond to a request for comment.<doc-sep>The "Discovering Me Academy" took a total of 29 students to a nearby park as part of a school field trip, according to CNN . Upon the field trip's completion, the kids were loaded onto the van and returned to the school between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m., when the driver and chaperone claim to have unloaded the van and guided the kids inside the daycare facility. According to the Harris County sheriff's office , school records show that the person in charge of roll call had marked the missing three-year-old boy as "present" on the list, and that it wasn't until 6:30 p.m. when the boy's father showed up to pick him up that they realized he was missing. Workers of a Houston-area daycare facility are currently cooperating with law enforcement to understand how a three-year-old boy was left inside the daycare's transportation van following a class field trip Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately, it was simply too late by the time the staff realized, as the young boy had already succumbed to the extreme Texas heat. A screenshot of the daycare's website shows the facility's parking lot where the boy passed away. "It's just tragic," Constable Alan Rosen told CNN. "It seems to me this was just gross negligence." By the time the boy was found, he had been in the 113-degree cabin for nearly four hours. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead by 7:45 p.m. Thursday. It's unclear if the boy was asleep when they arrived back at the daycare or what may have led to him being forgotten inside the van. It's also unclear if the boy was strapped to a child's seat, which could've possibly kept him from escaping the van once he realized what was happening. ABC News claims that the van's driver and the trip's chaperone have been detained for questioning but no charges have been filed. It must be said again; don't forget to check your car prior to exiting if traveling with children or pets.<doc-sep>Update: Daycare where child died is closed, victim identified A 3-year-old boy died Thursday, forgotten in the back of a sweltering bus after a field trip with his northwest Houston day care, authorities said. The boy was on an outing with Discovering Me Academy in the 8000 block of Antoine Drive when two employees — a bus driver and a chaperone — left him on the bus after returning around 3 p.m. from a trip to Doss Park along Frick Road. He was not discovered until his father came to pick him up around 6:30 p.m., according to Harris County Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen. EARLIER: Death of infant in hot car in Baytown prompts calls for safety measures Discovering Me Academy employees looked for the boy inside the day care before realizing he had been trapped in triple-digit heat in the bus parked in the facility's back parking lot, Rosen said. Deputies believe the boy might have fallen asleep during the 12-minute drive from the park, making him less noticeable to the two employees as they ushered 28 other children off the bus. Rosen said it was not clear whether the boy tried to escape the van before passing out. Paramedics tried to resuscitate the boy as they rushed him to Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital, but they were unsuccessful. An employee of the day care who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the staff was heartbroken and that the incident doesn't reflect on the care the center typically provides. "We have policies in place, the right policies, but we cannot force people to follow them," the employee said. Deputies recorded the temperature inside the bus as 113 degrees, although that reading was taken after rescuers had opened a door to the bus. Back at the day care, deputies with Rosen's office detained the bus driver and chaperone for questioning. They could face criminal charges, Rosen said, although that remains to be determined by Houston Police Department detectives and prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney's Office. During a news conference near the bus Thursday evening, Rosen blamed the two employees for the boy's death. "This was really just gross negligence," Rosen said. "As a result, a child lost his life." Detectives sought to piece together what happened after the bus returned to the day care facility. They also wanted to find out if the bus was equipped with surveillance cameras. Outside the day care, Elizabeth Perez — a mother of five — was shocked to learn of the boy's death. "It could have been my baby," Perez said, speaking of her 18-month-old child who is also enrolled at Discovering Me Academy She said the boy's death was not surprising and that she's had her own issues with the staff in the past. "They should be charged," Perez said. "They need to close the day care." An employee at Discovering Me Academy, reached by phone Thursday night, hung up after a reporter identified himself. Calls to the day care went unanswered. Discovering Me, founded in 2012, has faced no administrative penalties or other sanctions in the past five years, according to Texas Health and Human Services records. In the last five years, the records record 11 inspections by state regulators, who found no violations. The day care is run by Tanisha Butler and is authorized to enroll up to 185 children, state business records show. Its website touts it as a "safe and secure" day care "dedicated to the education and well-being of children." Online reviews indicated that the center was well-liked by parents, with a 4.6-star rating over 43 reviews on Facebook. "Never have I ever been more pleased, or impressed with a childcare facility," one reviewer wrote. "The owner Tanisha runs a very tight ship." When temperatures approaching triple digits Thursday, interior car temperatures could reach 140 degrees after an hour without air conditioning, according to the American Veterinary Medical Foundation. Nationwide, this was this year's 27th confirmed case of a child dying after being left in a hot car, according to the advocacy group Kids and Cars. It's the third such death in Texas this year, the group said, and the first involving a day care center. Four additional deaths are awaiting autopsy results, according to the organization. In June, a 9-month-old girl died in Baytown after being left in a hot truck for "an extended period of time," according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com<doc-sep>
Texas Boy, 3, Who Died After Being Left in Hot Van at Daycare Is Identified Authorities on Friday identified the Texas boy who died after being left in a hot van after a daycare field trip as 3-year-old Raymond Pryer. Raymond was left inside a van outside Discovering Me Academy on Antoine Drive for more than three hours after a field trip to a local park for finger painting and other activities, Assistant Chief Bobby Dobbins of the Houston police said at a Friday press conference. The group, which included Raymond along with two daycare enter employees, returned between 2 and 2:30 p.m., but when Raymond’s father came to pick him up at about 6 p.m., nobody could find him. At about 6:30, daycare workers found Raymond in the van suffering from heat exhaustion. He was brought to the hospital and pronounced dead at 7:45 p.m. A spokeswoman for the Harris County Medical Examiner’s office tells PEOPLE that Raymond’s cause of death is still under investigation. According to a Facebook statement from the Harris County Constable’s Office released late Thursday, the temperature inside the bus rose to 113 degrees, as measured by police who arrived at the scene. RJ Raymond Pryer | Credit: Raymond Pryer/FACEBOOK Records showed that the boy allegedly had been listed as being accounted for when the bus returned to daycare from the trip, the constable office’s statement said. Dobbins said the tragedy remains under investigation and that the findings of police will be brought to to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, which has the authority to present charges to a grand jury for indictment. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. A Houston police spokesman would not comment Monday on the specifics of the investigation but tells PEOPLE that “anybody and everybody” is being questioned. According to a statement from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which is the licensing agency for the daycare, the center voluntarily closed Monday and was scheduled to open again on Tuesday. The incident is being investigated by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, according to the statement. Discovering Me Academy Credit: ABC 13 ABC-13 reported that records show the daycare was cited in 2015 for several violations involving their van. One violation involved not having an electronic child safety alarm that would notify a driver if a child was left inside the vehicle; another involved a driver not knowing the number of children in her group. At Friday’s press conference, police said it wasn’t yet clear from the investigation whether the bus had a child safety alarm. PEOPLE’s call Monday to the Texas Health and Human Services’ child care licensing office in Houston was not immediately returned.