Angelo Epassa got on the wrong bus, went to the wrong school and spent the day making new friends while his frantic parents prayed and police launched a city-wide search for the missing boy.

The 4-year-old was reunited with his family Monday afternoon, nearly seven hours after his mother received a terrifying phone call from staff at St. Noel Chabanel Catholic Elementary School, where her son is a kindergarten student.

Angelo was not at school.

“It was just a horrible day,” said the boy’s father, Yannick Epassa, who was home with his wife and Angelo’s 3-year-old sister when the call came. “I was just imagining scenarios in my head. It’s crazy, what could have happened to him.”

The whole thing turned out to be a bizarre mix-up.

Angelo’s mother, Nathalie Epassa, was with the child outside their home in the Rexdale area when he boarded a yellow school bus just after 8 a.m., but she would later learn it was the wrong bus.

The boy was taken to Nile Academy, a private school located about two and a half kilometres away from his own school, near Finch and Islington Aves., police said. Like St. Noel Chabanel, Nile Academy happens to offer a French program, so Angelo fit right in.

With Monday being the first day back after holidays, Nile Academy was expecting five new students, according to police.

“The administration there thought he was a new student,” said Toronto police Sgt. Angelo Costa, who noted with a smile that he and the child have the same first name.

“He attended, had a great day at school, learned French, did what he had to do as a junior kindergarten,” Costa said.

The mistake was only realized at the end of the day, when it was time for Angelo to go home.

Angelo’s parents are relieved their son was found safe, but want to know why it took the school so long to figure it out.

“He actually said he told them, ‘This is not my school,’” the father said Monday evening as he waited in the lobby of the family’s apartment building for his son and wife to return from the police station.

Nile Academy could not be reached Monday evening for comment.

An afternoon announcement from Mayor Rob Ford added to the confusion surrounding the boy’s disappearance. In a news conference about the cleanup from last month’s ice storm, the mayor said the missing boy had been found, when in fact investigators had not yet announced Angelo’s safe return.

Toronto police quickly issued a clarification via Twitter: “Boy located, as mentioned by @TOMayorFord, is NOT the same boy.”

Police said a second child — the same age as Angelo — had been reported missing after school, but was found safe within minutes. He had walked home.

Soon after, police announced Angelo had also been found.

“When they told me ... I said, ‘I need to see him first, to believe,’” said his mother as she returned with Angelo to the family home just after 5 p.m.

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Unaware of the emotional turmoil his day at Nile Academy caused, Angelo, who turns 5 this month, said he had a fine day at school.

“I learned things,” the boy told reporters as his mother took him into her arms and carried him home.