Earlier today, I was contacted by a woman who was quite distraught after her teenage daughter, who has Down Sydrome, was reported missing from her New York school for children with special needs. She was ultimately found 5 hours later wandering by the side of a Manhattan highway, and taken home.

Although this mother was extremely angry with her daughter's school - and understandably so - I explained to her that she did not have a viable school negligence case under New York law because, fortunately, her daughter had not been harmed.

The flip side to this story is far more unfortunate: I fear that since nothing terrible happened to this child, the school may not take the necessary precautions to assure that a similar occurrence never happens again.