June 30 (UPI) — Authorities in southern Florida said Tuesday that they are investigating the death of a child whose body was found Monday in a car parked outside a school.

Officers with the police department in Plantation, a city located just west of Fort Lauderdale, said they found the body at 5:39 p.m. in a vehicle at A World of Discovery Academy. The police department said the officers were responding to a call concerning a dead child.

“Upon arrival, Plantation Fire Department sadly confirmed the child was deceased,” the Plantation Police Department said in a statement.

“Plantation police detectives responded to the scene, and an investigation into the death is underway.”

No identifying information about the child was given.

Leslie Novoa, owner of A World of Discovery Academy, told CBS News Miami that the child’s father had arrived to pick up his child, only to realize in the school’s parking lot that he had never dropped the child off and had left the child in the backseat of his vehicle while he was at work.

“Unfortunately, when he arrived at school, he realized the situation,” she said, adding that she was the one who called 911.

“I tried to help the daddy. He’s part of a wonderful family. They have been with us the past six years. They are great parents.”

There have been at least nine child deaths related to hot cars so far this year, according to the National Safety Council, with 31 deaths reported in 2025. An average of 37 children under the age of 15 die in cars from heat stroke each year, it added.

The Kids and Car Safety nonprofit organization warns that half of hot-car death situations, the person responsible unknowingly left their child in the vehicle.

“In most situations, this happens to loving, caring and protective parents,” it says on its website.