Boy, 5, Who Wandered From After-School Program Unnoticed, Found A Mile Away: Report

VALENCIA, CA — A 5-year-old boy was found alone after wandering away from his Los Angeles County after-school program unnoticed, his parents told news outlets.

Oliver Epstein, who attends North Park Elementary School in Valencia, was found Nov. 4 about a mile away from his school, his mother, Natalie Epstein, told KTLA 5 News.

“When he was found, he was crying,” Natalie Epstein told the TV station. “It’s heartbreaking as a mother.”

The parents shared their concerns during public comment at the school district’s governing board meeting Tuesday, The Santa Clarita Valley Signal reported.

“The only reason we are not planning a funeral, or still possibly searching for our missing child tonight, is blind luck, and not because the people we trusted to protect him were doing their job,” the child's father, Brett Epstein, said, according to The Signal.

Brett Epstein told the newspaper the family’s nanny spotted the boy alone and brought him home.

After getting a call from the nanny, Brett Epstein said he called his wife, who called the after-school program, ABC 7 News reported.

"The after-care woman had seen him at some point during the day, I'm assuming, proceeds to tell my wife that he was there when in fact he was almost a mile and a half away on a corner of a busy street, unaccounted for, unsupervised, with his backpack, alone," Brett Epstein told the TV station.

In a statement provided to FOX 11 News, Sagus Union School District Superintendent Colleen Hawkins said it launched an investigation after the incident was reported.

“Based on what we learned from this incident, appropriate corrective action has been taken including but not limited to improvements in student supervision protocols and in securing facilities,” Hawkins said, adding that the district regrets “the concern and frustration this incident caused for the family.”