Police say 38-year-old Jennifer Westfall dropped her 9-year-old and 19-month-old off on the side of Reedy Creek Road in Cary on October 2.
Authoritites say a woman taking her child to Reedy Creek Elementary witnessed the incident, picked up the two children and took them to the school.
School administrators alerted the school resource officer, who in turn called Child Protective Services.
The children are fine and in foster care, but Westfall told sister station ABC11 in Raleigh there is more to the story.
She claims she drove into the school's campus, dropped her kids off and watched a woman take them by the hand -- which she says she thought was a legal way to abandon the children.
"I know what I did was wrong, but I just, I was so tired of doing this by myself," she said. "I have the strength to do what I need to do, but I don't have the skills to make the income that I need to take care of my family, and nobody will hire me. I've been around everywhere. And with these charges, I just don't see how I'm ever getting my kids back."
But in North Carolina, only infants a few days old can be left with another adult in order to be considered legal. CPS and Cary police investigated and decided to charge the mother with two counts of misdemeanor child abuse.
Westfall was arrested at her Fuquay-Varina home Monday.
She was released from jail Tuesday night and is due in court in November.
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