Special needs girl, 6, is found wandering alone down Texas highway by homeless man after her school sent her home with the wrong group

A six-year-old special needs girl was found walking near a highway in Texas by a homeless man after she was sent home from school in the wrong group.

Serenity Polk, who is deaf, was wrongly sent home on Thursday from Lantrip Elementary School in Houston with kids that walk when she is supposed to be in the car-rider group.

The little girl was discovered an hour later wandering a mile away from her school on the busy I-45 feeder road by a homeless man who was alarmed to see the child child walking around a highway entrance all alone. 

Her mom Mercedes Polk, 40, is furious with the school and claims 'nonchalant' teachers did not seem alarmed when they told her Serenity had gone missing.

'The teachers kept giving me excuses that they were looking for her within the school,' she told Fox 26.

Serenity Polk, 6, was found wandering alone around a busy Texas highway by a homeless man who stands by the highway entrance after her school sent her home with the wrong group 

Serenity has special needs because she is deaf in both ears and has problems with her vision

Serenity's mother Mercedes Polk, 40, had arrived at Lantrip Elementary early for pick up on the Thursday to discover her little girl was not there 

'They were saying she might be at the playground. She might be in the bathroom, but it was over an hour. So I started freaking out even more.'

Staff at the school had placed the deaf child in the wrong line at pick up time, despite the students being organized into specific groups by different colored badges.

The homeless man managed to return the little girl to safety after finding and calling the school based on the uniform Serenity was wearing. 

Polk said her daughter was hysterically crying and shivering when they were finally reunited. Serenity told her mother she tried to walk all the way home - a 30 minute drive - after being put in the wrong group. 

She told Fox: 'A homeless man that holds the sign right there on Cullen and I-45 found my daughter. He contacted the school. The school went to go get her. She wouldn't get in the car with them.

'So the school contacted the police. She wouldn't get in the car with the police and that's when they called me. All that time I thought my daughter was in the school building.'

Serenity had been put in the wrong group for pick up at the end of the day - she was supposed to be driven home but she was sent with the walking group 

Polk had been trying to get the school to let her daughter to ride on the special needs bus since she had started at the Texas elementary school 

Polk said: 'I didn't know if she was raped, murdered, kidnapped, hit by a car' and shared that her daughter was crying hysterically when they were finally reunited 

Polk told the Houston Chronicle: 'I have been fighting for my daughter to ride the special needs bus since we started school.

'If they would have done what they were supposed to do by accommodating my baby with transportation...I don't think any of this would have happened.' 

Dr. Candice Matthews of the New Black Panther Party said: 'It could have been something catastrophic that could have happened to this child on the feeder road of I-45 or the expressway of I-45. This child could have lost her life.'

Polk said: 'I didn't know if she was raped, murdered, kidnapped, hit by a car.'

The school said that the employee responsible for the serious mistake was a substitute teacher. 

The incident is being investigated by Child Protective Services.