Cy-Fair ISD second-grader left alone outside for hours after wrong-bus mix-up at Tipps Elementary

A Cy-Fair ISD mother is demanding a formal investigation after her 7-year-old daughter was mistakenly placed on a school bus instead of her after-school program. The mix-up left the girl alone outside their apartment complex for nearly three hours.

Rataja Pruitt said her second-grade daughter, Eli'sa, was enrolled in an after-school program called Club Rewind at Tipps Elementary School. Pruitt arrived at the school around 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 8 to pick her up. A teacher told her Eli'sa had never shown up to the program that day.

"When I got into the building, they asked me why I was there, and I told them I was there to pick up my kid from Club Rewind," Pruitt said. "One of the teachers said she was never at school. I stated I personally dropped her off myself. She was at school. They said, 'Well, Eli'sa isn't here.'"

With no answers from the school, Pruitt called a neighbor and asked them to check around their apartment complex in case her daughter had somehow made it home. The neighbor found Eli'sa asleep on the stairs outside their unit, sweating and crying.

According to Pruitt, Eli'sa had been sitting outside alone from roughly 4 p.m. until nearly 6:45 p.m. She got home only because she recognized another child from the apartment complex who was getting off the same bus and followed her.

"They put her on the bus, and the only way she found her way home was she saw a local friend, a friend that lived at our complex," Pruitt said. "She got off with her. She knew where our apartment was, but I wasn't home because I was trying to pick her up."

Pruitt hand-delivered a two-page written complaint to the district asking for a formal investigation into how the mix-up happened and what dismissal procedures are in place at Tipps Elementary to prevent a repeat.

"I want someone to be held accountable because initially, the school still didn't know where my child was," Pruitt said. "This could have ended so much differently."

Cy-Fair ISD confirmed the incident in a statement, saying a substitute staff member mistakenly directed the student to the bus dismissal line instead of her assigned after-school program. The district said campus administration launched an investigation once the error was discovered.

"A student at Tipps Elementary School was mistakenly directed to the bus dismissal line instead of their assigned after-school care program on Sept. 8 due to a procedural oversight by a substitute staff member," the district said. "Upon identifying the error, campus administration immediately launched an investigation. Campus and district administration deeply regret the situation and extend a sincere apology to the student and their family. Student safety remains our highest priority. Campus officials are conducting a thorough review of dismissal procedures to ensure strict compliance across all personnel."

Pruitt said the apology from the district is a start but does not answer her core question: how a 7-year-old ended up alone outside for nearly three hours without staff realizing she was missing from her after-school program until a parent showed up asking where she was.

Tipps Elementary is part of Cy-Fair ISD, which covers roughly 190 square miles across northwest Harris County. The district has not said whether the substitute staff member involved in the mix-up remains on campus or whether any disciplinary action has been taken.

Pruitt said she is waiting on a written response to her complaint and wants the district to spell out specific changes to dismissal checks at Tipps Elementary, including how staff account for students moving between bus lines and after-school programs at the end of the day.