Children’s Aid has joined the Toronto police to investigate how a 9-year-old girl made her way from the city's west end to downtown via a TTC bus at 3:30 in the morning.

A passenger spotted the girl on a TTC bus near Yonge and Adelaide Sts. at around 3:30 a.m.

No one was looking for her at the time, as police say a missing person report for the 9-year-old child was not called in.

Rob Thompson, director of communications at Children’s Aid Society, said in a cases like this, a CAS after-hours emergency staff member would be called to attend the scene and bring the child into the organization’s care, or work with police.

“Then they would make a determination…on whether the child slipped out by accident or wandered away on purpose, or was kicked out, thrown out, left out,” he said.

Toronto police have located the father, but it’s unclear when he will be reunited with his daughter.

“Together with the police, the CAS worker would interview the parents, maybe even visit the family home just to have an idea as to what life may be like there and see what’s going on,” he said.

“The social worker would determine what the state of the family was and whether this was an unfortunate circumstance or something more neglectful.”

Officers believe the girl began her trip from the city’s west end, in the 23 Division area.

For TTC operators, the protocol for reporting unaccompanied children is similar to reporting other incidents on board.

Operators “Contact our transit control centre, who would notify police or special constables depending on the situation,” said Ross.

“It’s very difficult to make those judgment calls and we’re not going to second-guess our operators, but they have discretion on those matters.”

As for CAS cases involving unaccompanied young children similar to this, Thompson said, “It doesn’t happen every day.”

Late last month, two young girls were found wandering a street in the city's west end by themselves just before 7 a.m.

In that case, Toronto police say the girls, who were both three years old, were believed to have simply woken up early and gone outside together.

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They were reunited with their mother at a police station.

With files from the Canadian Press