I've Been Under Investigation For Child Abuse But No One Is Telling Me Anything

I (19 **) work as a direct support professional for children in residential care due to IDD and/or behavioral issues. I am a full-time college student while independently supporting myself by working full-time. I typically work 32-36 hours a week while taking 4 classes (16 credits) with 3 of them being STEM, so you can only imagine how extremely busy my schedule is and the amount of stress I am constantly under.

I took a week off from work to ensure that I could solely focus on my finals. I returned to work the Saturday right after finals, first day of spring break, and worked a 12 hour shift at a house that I have only worked at about 4 times prior to that shift. This house has a 1:1 staff to client ratio so there is typically 3 staff to the 3 clients, except when it is the overnight shift. On the last hour of my shift, one of the clients ran away during bed time hours and none of us realized until 20 mins later. You're probably wondering how the hell we didn't notice a kid was missing. All of the clients were in bed and all 3 of the staffs were in the staff office finishing up the necessary paperwork to complete the shift. About 10-15 mins after the last kid was put to bed, we heard the slightest chirp from one of the alarms. It was completely silent but we still barely heard the alarm. There is supposed to be alarms on every door and window leading outside, but this house in particular had an alarm on one of the bathrooms.

We assumed that it was bathroom door slightly swinging open, but Staff 1 (client is the one who ran away) walked out of the office and I assumed that they went to check out the rest of the house. My client's room is right across the office door with their door wide open due to personal preference. The office door was never fully shut and I was sitting by the door to ensure that I could keep visual/audial supervision for my own client practically at all times. Staff 2 (client is in the other side of the house) was at the desk working on their paperwork and peeked out the window that shows the front lawn. They didn't see anything or say anything, and resumed their paperwork. About 20 mins later, Staff 2 goes out to warm up his car since it was almost shift change and the overnight staff was supposed to be coming soon. Overnight staff pulls up as Staff 2 was out there and the two had a conversation before Staff 2 drove off without being relived from duties. Overnight staff walks into the office and says "Y'all didn't notice you were missing a kid?" Staff 1 and I are obviously confused and thought that they were joking but they tell us how the kid got out and that Staff 2 left to drive around in search of the kid. Staff 1 walks around the neighborhood while I stay in the house because atleast one person needed to be in the house and the overnight staff was still clocking in and doing shift change duties. The kid is found at a park down the street and brought back to the house within 15-20 mins. All three of us were relieved from our shift and informed that we would be suspended pending investigation. This is because the company policy is to maintain supervision with 15 minute checks, at minimum, even if the clients are in their room. In other words, we realized that the kid was missing 5 mins late.

HR contacted me 4 days later and said that they filed a report of child abuse and that the investigator will be reaching out. I don't hear anything from anyone for the next week and a half. I then reached out to my manager and informed that I haven't been contacted yet and they responded that they will reach out to HR. I get contacted by the investigator 3 days later and find out that they weren't able to reach out because they had spelled my name wrong on the email. I was under the assumption that cooperating was in my best interest if I wanted to return to work as soon as possible and so I told the investigator my perspective of the events and was very detailed and included timestamps. This is something that I have picked up while working there to provide the most accurate information relating to tracking client's behavior. At the end of the interview, the investigator stated that they didn't really find incriminating evidence but that was still up for debate until the investigation has been concluded. The investigator mentioned that it may be possible for me to be brought into court as a witness if it reaches that stage.

I don't hear anything else after this for another 2 weeks before I reached out to HR and left the investigator a voicemail. HR informs me that I am still employed but that they didn't have any other information. Another week or so goes by and I still haven't heard from the investigator so I sent them a text message. I got a reply the following morning stating that there was no new information at the time. At this point, I have been suspended for 8 weeks and applied to a former minimum wage job to have a source of income. A few hours ago, I got a text from a coworker checking in on me and I find out that Staff 1 got fired immediately and that Staff 2 returned to work after 1 week. I am now trying to look for a legal aid or a lawyer for low-income people but I am not really sure how to go about this situation. I am looking for advice because I have no family and no connections to guide me through this foreign situation. I maintained supervision on my own client the whole time and I assumed that my fellow coworkers did their duties in ensuring their clients' safety. I do not think that I am implicated in this situation at all.

What should I do?

** Side note: Specific details have been simplified due to the sensitivity of this situation and any identifying characteristics has been anonymized and may cause confusion. I apologize for that.