OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. -- A bus driver and a bus attendant were arrested on child neglect charges after a 3-year-old special needs student was left on a bus for more than seven hours, police said Thursday.

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said it was contacted Tuesday by the Department of Children and Families about the case.

Benjamin Gonzalez, 66, the bus driver, and Carmen Pacheco, 60, both of Kissimmee, have each been charged with one count of child neglect, the sheriff’s office said.

The child’s mother told investigators that she put the child on the bus at 6:53 a.m. but received a call from a school employee at 2:50 p.m. that her son had been left on the bus the entire day.

The school took the child home at about 3:15 p.m. and the family took him to Osceola Regional Medical Center to be seen by a doctor, police said. The boy appeared to be OK.

Detectives said they interviewed Gonzalez and Pacheco, who both said they picked up the child, and other children, to transport them to Sunrise Elementary School.

Police said the pair neglected to check the bus and no one saw the boy still restrained in a car seat.

Gonzalez parked the bus at the barn at Horizon Middle School for the day and it wasn’t until they went to pick up the students in the afternoon that they noticed the boy, detectives said.

The sheriff’s office said videotape evidence from the bus confirmed the story and the two were arrested and taken to the Osceola County Jail. Information on bail was not available.