Can't Find a Bat in the Basement

Hi, my name is Sara and I hope you can help me. We live in Altoona, Pennsylvania. We bought this house in September of 2013. My husband and father in law removed an old wood burner in our basement during pre-moving renovations. When we came back the next morning to paint, there was a bat sleeping on the brick wall. I took my daughter and left the room and my husband removed the bat. Speaking with the neighbors bats are so frequent in this area that they've nested in pool umbrellas, gotten into other's homes, and I've even come home to one at night perched on our exterior brick above the front door. We had not seen or heard any more bats inside until app 10 days ago as my daughters and their friend and I slept in the (now finished) basement. I heard it clawing around the drop ceilings and then at the metal HVAC vent (a round circular one with fairly wide spaces between each circle). Of course, it flew out and I screamed, waking everyone. My husband ran down and the kids and I ran upstairs. He was unable to catch the bat so he shut the basement door and said he'd find it sleeping in the morning. The next morning 3 of us searched everywhere and couldn't find it. Later that night while I was working, it was flying around again and my husband panicked and smacked it with a broom. Today I had my 1 1/2 and 3 year olds vaccinated because my 3 year old napped down there that day and and my 1 1/2 year old may have been unsupervised for a minute or two here or there for me to fetch him a drink or snack and couldn't tell me if he was bitten or scratched. I didn't have my 5 year old vaccinated because surely if it came out to bite or scratch her during the day she would tell me. But then I thought "could it have crawled back into the HVAC vent, through duct, up into her bedroom floor vent, fly over and bite/scratch her, and crawl back down into the floor vent and back down to the basement?!" Or under two sets of doors twice?! Infection control said "if it came in the basement and was found in the basement, it was just in the basement". Is there any way it couldn't scratched her in it's sleep of it was sleeping under the table down there and she brushed it with her leg or anything? I'm just so terrified and need answers. Also, do these sound like fluke coincidences or do I have a colony issue? I'm fine with bats outside but I also know that rabies is fatal so of course I'm terrified for my kids. Our basement is our playroom, family room, and sleepover room on Friday nights. I'm so afraid of this happening again and my husband doesn't take it seriously. I don't have money to hire an expert. Maybe if you have an estimate I can figure something out..? I'm losing sleep. Thanks for any response.

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