339 cases of missing children in 5 years What happened to their precious places? March 16th 10:44am

``Haru-chan, I'm sorry I couldn't help you.'' (Mother of a male student) Last

December, a male student with disabilities went missing from a welfare facility in Suita City, Osaka, and was found dead in a river a week later. Found it.

The student was attending an after-school day service for children with disabilities.

In recent years, the number of users has increased rapidly, and the number of facilities has risen to more than 20,000 nationwide.

Behind the scenes, children are going missing one after another.

In the wake of the Suita City accident, NHK made information disclosure requests to local governments and found that over the past five years there have been at least 339 cases of children temporarily missing from facilities. Ta.

What exactly is happening in these important places for children?

We investigated the background behind this incident based on a questionnaire survey of those involved.

(Osaka Broadcasting Station Reporting Team)

*After-school day service

is a welfare service that accepts children with disabilities after school and on holidays, based on the Child Welfare Act, and started 12 years ago in April 2012.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, as of November last year, there were 21,068 facilities nationwide, with a total of 342,753 users per month.

I left it with peace of mind...

Kanzaki River flows through Suita City, Osaka.

It was here that Yuki Shimizu, a first-year junior high school student from Toyonaka City, passed away.

Yusei was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, a developmental disorder, when he was three years old, and it was difficult for him to communicate verbally.

Since she was in the first grade of elementary school, she had been attending an after-school day care facility in Suita City, where she would spend her time after class until going home.

She said she loved playing in the water.

His mother, Akari,

said, ``If a parent dies first, the child will have to live in society.I want my son to be able to do at least one thing so that he doesn't get into trouble at that time, to improve his social skills.'' I left it with her because I wanted her to learn it.Little by little, she began to express her feelings through gestures and signs of her own."

However, on December 9th.

When Yusei arrived at the facility and got off the shuttle vehicle as usual, he suddenly started running and disappeared.

Police searched the area and found her dead in a nearby river a week later.

Her mother, Akari Shimizu, said she trusted the facility and sent her child to the facility for six years.

After the accident, the facility informs us of a certain fact.

Due to the nature of her disability, Yusei sometimes starts running suddenly, so we had made an agreement with the facility that two staff members would always accompany her when she got off the shuttle vehicle.

However, she said that in reality, she was dealing with one staff member on a daily basis.

Furthermore, during the police investigation, it was discovered that Yusei had gone missing while using the facility in the past.

However, that fact was not communicated.

His mother, Akari,

said, ``The facility had told me that they would accept my son after fully understanding his characteristics, so I trusted him and entrusted him with peace of mind.However, I never imagined that something like that would happen.'' I should have been living right now like everyone else, but as time has passed, my feelings haven't moved forward at all. It's frustrating."

“Missing” 339 cases, 3 deaths

In response to this accident, NHK has requested information disclosure from the 10 most populous prefectures and their ordinance-designated cities and core cities, among the local governments that have jurisdiction over after-school and other day care facilities. I checked to see if it was.

As a result, it was found that there were at least 339 cases of children temporarily missing in the five years up to last year.

By prefecture: 94 cases in Kanagawa, 71 cases in Osaka, 34 cases in Saitama, 29 cases in Aichi, 28 cases in Fukuoka, 24 cases in Tokyo, 22 cases in Hyogo, 18 cases in Chiba ▼Hokkaido has 10 cases, ▼Shizuoka has 9 cases.

The materials we obtained this time include accident reports submitted by the facility to the local government and records of consultations from parents.

Among these, there were three cases in which children subsequently died, including an accident in Suita City, Osaka.

Three years ago, in August 2021, a 6-year-old boy went missing at a facility in Kobe City while a summer festival was being held in the parking lot.

When staff noticed that he was missing, the facility alerted the police, contacted his mother, and searched the area.

According to police and the city, the boy was found in a canal about a kilometer from the facility and later died.

Additionally, in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, in July 2021, a 9-year-old boy went missing from a facility and was found dead in a river five days later.

Cases found on railroad tracks

In addition, there were multiple cases where the victims were safely protected, but could be life-threatening.

In January 2019, a child in Chiba City's Hanamigawa Ward went missing after getting off a courtesy car, and was later found by a limited express train driver on the Keisei Main Line tracks.

The vehicle suddenly stopped on the spot and the child was found safe.

Additionally, in January last year in the Shishi region of Hokkaido, nine children were playing in the snow with two staff members in the parking lot of a facility when one of them went missing.

It was not found that day, but it was found safely in a vacant building about 5 kilometers from the facility about 17 hours later.

Of the 339 cases, we investigated the causes of children going missing in 282 cases for which we were able to confirm the specific circumstances at the time, and found that the following cases were common:

▼ 131 cases in which the child went outside without the staff noticing

▼ 79 cases in which the child disappeared while playing in the park or while out for a walk

▼ 48 cases in which the child disappeared while getting in and out of the shuttle vehicle

Survey 471 people's opinions

What is behind the increasing number of missing children?

We conducted an online survey targeting facility staff, parents, and others.

As a result, 471 people responded.

Approximately one in five people answered that there was a case of a missing person or that they had seen or heard about it.

Parents who “couldn’t say anything” have mixed feelings

I was able to talk to one of them.

My name is Chie Masuki (46) and I live in Yokohama.

When my second son, Satoshi (13), was in elementary school, he disappeared for a while.

Satoshi, who was diagnosed with ``autistic spectrum disorder,'' sometimes starts running when he hears a sound he doesn't like, so he always has to keep an eye on him when he goes out.

On the day she went missing, Satoshi was playing in the park with facility staff, but she disappeared while the staff were not looking.

Satoshi was 9 years old at the time.

There are major roads in the area, so when Masuki was contacted, he said he thought about the worst case scenario.

Police received a report from the facility, searched for him, and found Satoshi at a shopping center 2 kilometers away from the park, where he was safely taken into custody.

He had been missing for about two hours.

Chie Masuki

: ``My child doesn't know about danger, so I'm usually with her all the time.That's why it was really painful to think that I might not be able to see her for even 30 minutes or an hour.''

Satoshi is now attending a different facility, but Masuki says he was unable to complain or request improvements to the facility he was attending at the time.

For Mr. Masuki, who is raising three children by himself while working as a visiting caregiver, the facility is indispensable.

He believed that if he were to leave the facility, he would not be able to find another place to take his severely disabled son.

Chie Masuki

: ``I feel unforgivable that my son's life was put in danger, but as a parent, I feel grateful that they are taking care of my son, so I don't want to do anything to the facility.'' I couldn't even say anything. I think parents

should , and I regret that I wasn't able to do that."

Actual state of operation of facilities where it is “difficult to ensure child safety”

The survey also revealed that behind the disappearance of children there are issues with facility management.

Among the responding facility employees, nearly 90% (71 out of 82) cited ``staff shortages'' as an issue.

A social welfare corporation in Osaka responded to the interview in order to let people know the reality of the situation.

The facility operated by this corporation in Sumiyoshi Ward, Osaka, accepts 31 junior high and high school students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The facility has a daily capacity of 10 children, and the children mainly spend their time there from after school until around 5:30 p.m., exercising and playing in a nearby park accompanied by staff.

There are many children with severe disabilities, and in order to be able to treat each child with care, the corporation assigns at least five staff members for every 10 children, exceeding the national standard of at least two.

We have also endeavored to provide generous support, such as having multiple staff members accompany each person depending on the nature of their disability when getting on and off the shuttle vehicle.

However, last year, two children attending the school went missing at this corporation.

Although both were safely rescued, the cause was that the staff either left them unattended or forgot to lock the entrances and exits.

In response to this, the corporation has taken measures such as holding training sessions on the characteristics of disabilities for all employees, but even if the number of employees exceeds the national standard, it is still difficult to ensure the safety of children. The current situation is that this is difficult.

On the other hand, it is said that it is not possible to increase the number of employees any further.

This is because remuneration from the national and local governments, which are the biggest source of income, is determined primarily by the number of children accepted, regardless of the number of staff.

For this reason, it is said that as the number of staff increases and support becomes more generous, operations become more difficult.

The company is expected to be in the red again this year, and the reality is that the corporation is making up for it with revenue from other welfare service projects.

Haruhiko Ueda, the facility's manager, said,

``Because the children we take in are middle and high school students who are large in size, we sometimes need two staff members to take care of one child, so there are many situations where we feel we are short-staffed. We are not thinking about reducing the number of staff because it would directly lead to not being able to protect the safety of the children.We cannot afford to go bankrupt, so we want to find some way to keep the business going.''

Lack of knowledge and experience among staff

Furthermore, in the survey, 113 people (free description) answered, ``There are issues with staff's knowledge of disabilities.''

Among them, a woman who worked at an after-school day care service as a ``certified psychologist'' who provided psychological care to children responded to the interview.

She says she has seen many staff provide support without fully understanding the characteristics of the disability.

Female Certified Psychologist

: ``I've seen children who aren't able to do something, or can't help it, but a staff member yells at them.'' The person said, ``It's discipline.'' However, there are no thoughts or ideas about how to deal with the characteristics of disabilities.

National guidelines require training to be provided to improve the quality of staff.

However, the specific training methods and content were left up to the facility, and it was not provided at the workplace where the woman was working.

Female Certified Psychologist

: ``Staff members are busy with picking up and dropping off children and doing other chores, so they don't have the opportunity to acquire the most important knowledge. There was no training at all, and I didn't have much time to deepen my expertise."

In the free-text section of the questionnaire, there were other comments such as the following:

"There is a high turnover of staff. It is difficult for staff to communicate and share information about the child's characteristics and precautions with other staff members." (Parent in his 50s

) (part-time worker in his 50s)

``How do we foster staff understanding of disabilities and respond based on evidence, how do we aim to improve quality, and what is actually happening in the field? ``Maybe we need a third party's perspective and advice.'' (employee in his 50s)

Local governments also have challenges in understanding the situation

The various issues surrounding after-school and other day care services became clear through our interviews.

Local governments, which are responsible for providing guidance and supervision over facilities, are also faced with the difficulty of understanding the situation.

This is the Disabled Persons Support Division of Kobe City.

The number of facilities in the city has continued to increase at a rate of about 30 each year for the past 10 years, and currently stands at 333 locations.

As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to respond with limited staff.

Naohiro Kuroda, Director of the Kobe City Disabled Persons Support Division

: ``I think it's becoming difficult for the government to pay attention to it, and some facilities end up looking closed.I think it's important to improve the quality of support, Securing expertise may be one of the challenges."

(Image: Patrol support)

Kobe City has therefore started an initiative called "patrol support."

Our staff visited all facilities over several years together with experts in welfare for people with disabilities.

We will advise you on how to deal with the problem appropriately depending on the characteristics of the disability.

The aim is to understand the actual state of management while working to improve quality.

On this day, we visited a facility in Kita Ward, Kobe City, and interviewed the facility about the issues it is currently facing.

They then observed for an hour how the staff interacted with the children.

The experts then provided specific improvement measures.

The person in charge of the facility visited said,

``The reality is that as a business, we are thinking about how to support children every day through trial and error.In such a situation, it is very reassuring to have a third party involved. I believe this will lead to the provision of services more safely and securely."

How can outside eyes be used to solve problems in after-school day care services?

Kobe City aims to build relationships with facilities that allow for daily interaction.

Expert “Transition from “quantity” to “quality””

This interview revealed the reality and background behind a series of missing children.

We asked Professor Bunji Yamagata of Kansai University, an expert on child welfare, how facilities can improve the quality of support and ensure safety.

Professor Yamagata said, ``This survey targeted municipalities with large populations, so the number of cases of missing children is thought to be even higher,'' and points out the following:

Professor Bunji Yamagata, Kansai University

: ``Some children behave in unexpected ways due to the characteristics of their disabilities, but this is not the child's fault.Adults need to fully understand the characteristics of behavior and developmental characteristics.'' We should focus on the fact that the staff did not notice this, and that there is not a sufficient monitoring system in place to detect danger. '', but the time has come for a ``qualitative change''.In order to protect the safety of children, the government should provide compensation so that motivated facilities can increase the number of staff and improve training. Measures should be taken quickly, such as by reviewing the system."

Children and Families Agency: ``We are progressing to understand the actual situation''

Finally, we asked the Children and Family Affairs Agency, which is in charge of the after-school day care system, about their thoughts on the issue.

In response to the interview, the Children and Families Agency said, ``We believe it is extremely important to take measures to ensure the safety of children and prevent accidents,'' and commented as follows.

``Business operators are legally required to formulate a ``safety plan'' that stipulates 1. accident reporting to prefectures and municipalities, 2. inspection of equipment for safety management, training for staff, etc. In addition, in fiscal 2023, we are working to understand the actual situation of accidents, etc. in support for children with disabilities, and based on the results, we would like to continue to thoroughly implement measures to ensure safety.

Furthermore, the company says that securing human resources is an urgent and important issue, and plans to enhance remuneration so that more business establishments can take steps to improve employee treatment.

Interview postscript

Among at least 339 cases of missing children in five years

, Akari, the mother of Yuki Shimizu, who died in Suita City, Osaka, said, ``As the facility she chose was one of her own, she was disappointed that she could not save her son.'' "I still have regrets. I want society as a whole to create an opportunity to think about this so that similar accidents don't happen again."

On the other hand, in the survey, we received several comments of gratitude towards the facility.

``It's a great place for parents to improve their communication skills, allowing them to interact with staff and students from other schools.'' (Parent in his 30s) ``It's an

important place to spend leisure time after school and is the only place that accepts children with disabilities. I'm grateful to have been able to have this experience." (Parent in his 40s)

Over the past 12 years, the number of users and facilities for after-school day services has rapidly increased due to the increase in the number of dual-income households.

It has now become an indispensable place for children with disabilities and their parents.

However, our reporting team knew little about this current situation until the Suita City accident occurred.

Of course, the government and facilities need to prepare the environment so that children never lose their lives, but the local community and each of us must first learn about the current situation, and live with and watch over children with disabilities. Through this interview, I realized that it is important to have a mindset of moving forward.

(Broadcast on March 1st “Kansai Net Gaze” and March 15th on “Good Morning Japan”)