The parents of an autistic 6-year old who vanished from school this week will not be sending their son back until he is fitted with a GPS tracker and better safety policies are in place at the school.
Matt and Karen Dawson are still grateful their son came home after his four-hour disappearance on Thursday which prompted a frantic, city-wide search.
"I'm tired, but he's back to himself today, bouncing off the walls," Mrs Dawson told the Rotorua Daily Post.
The Dawsons have now raised questions about the procedures and policies in place at Kea St Specialist School when an incident like this occurs.
Their main concern was that the school did not contact police when they realised James was missing. Police have confirmed they were first notified of the situation at 1.50pm by Mrs Dawson.
"The school called Karen and asked her to come in for a sit down, James was missing. There was no urgency," Mr Dawson said.
He said the school had now told them they would be doing an investigation.
"The principal did stay behind today to do that, so she cut her conference short, and she fronted to us last night, so we're very grateful and appreciative of that. Because to be honest it probably would have been easier to just say we'll deal with that tomorrow."
School principal Sherie Collins was out of town the day James went missing, but stands behind her team.
"In my absence my leadership team and all of my staff followed process and I have complete confidence in the procedure," she said.
Children were back in the classroom yesterday, and the school hoped to complete its investigation early next week.
"The next step is that they meet with the chairman of the board on Monday and go over the outcome, at which point they'll have a formal response for us," Mr Dawson said.
Mr and Mrs Dawson said their son would not be going back until steps were in place to further reduce the chances of this happening again.
"He definitely needs to be in school, they're doing great things with him. He's getting socialised, he's really come out of his shell," Mrs Dawson said.
"You just see when you go into James' class that it's not just about going to work, they enjoy being there. I've seen them with James, it's just the way they are."
"The things the staff deal with on a daily basis, they're special people, they're very special people."
Mr Dawson said there was no other place for James, and they were organising a GPS tracker before he goes back. The family hope that change toprocedure will reach further than just Kea St Specialist School.
"This school in Rotorua is not unique, there's probably lots of these schools around the country, lots of kids that go to them. Tony Pope, chairman of the school board believes staff followed procedure to the tee.
"I have the utmost confidence in the management and governance of Kea Street Specialist school," he said.
"The staff have a high level of care for all their students."
The Ministry of Education has offered support to the school as they review their procedures.
Sector Enablement and Support deputy secretary Katrina Casey said, "schools within New Zealand operate an inclusive model of practice and are expected to adapt the curriculum and provide a safe learning environment for all students no matter what their child's needs are."