Child care owners starting to shop for alarms, a year after 2-year-old's death

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - It was this week of last year, when 2-year-old Haile Brockington was left in a Katie's Kids day care van and died.

Since then the Katie's Kids has closed up shop and now local commissioners members are passing a law making sure it doesn't happen to anyone else.

"I certainly see that things happen and people don't always follow the rules and having an extra alarm system is an extra security system for us," Eric Epstein, owner of ABC Children's Learning Academy said.

Epstein said he's currently shopping around for an alarm system to put in his vans to keep kids safe.

"I think the relative low cost of the device even if it was a little bit moderately priced is well worth the safety," he said.

The prices vary, as some companies have alarms that cost $125 like Some cost about a hundred while others can cost about $300. The systems vary too, but most of them contain an alarm that sounds off when the ignition is turned off of the vehicle.

"I think the alarm in place makes it so the driver hears the alarm and knows that they have to push a button," Epstein said.

But others like Paul MacDonald's ICARE Wireless system work through text messaging. 

"When the van comes back on property one of the wireless censors starts communicating with the system then the system sends a text alert to multiple staff members," MacDonald said.

Letting multiple people including a manager know when van is back and the vehicle has or hasn't been checked, but there isn't an alarm.

"The systems that are out there can be easily disconnected," MacDonald said. "What we're doing is bringing in the human element reminding multiple staff members to do their job."

He says it still meets the laws requirements. Options owners like Eric Epstein are going to have a year to decide on to try and figure out which is safest for the kids.

Palm Beach County Commissioners on August 16th. Child Care Centers will have until September of next year until they actually have to make sure that these type of alarms are actually put in place into these vans.