How long is too long?

J

joneshockey

Guest
Hey Everyone~

How long is too long (in your opinion) for a 5 year old ECSE (early childhood Special Education) student to ride on the bus? I just got B2's bussing schdule for the upcoming school year and they have him getting picked up at 7:36 and dropped back off at 12:48 - where the issue comes in is that school doesnt start until 8:30 so he is on the bus for 54 minutes in the morning & school dismisses at 11:45, so he has to ride an additional 1 hour and 3 minutes home. What are your thoughts on this situation?

Mine are as follows...
1. He is on the bus about 1/2 the time he is in school!
2. Older kids are not expected to ride that long --- If you are the first one picked up in the AM, then you are the first ones dropped off in the PM
3. They should feed him lunch before leaving school to come home since he will have not had anything substantial to eat for 6 hours
4. B2 last year only had to ride for 30 minutes each way and he still would almost always fall asleep on the way home

Maybe I am making a mountian out of a mole hill, but to me this just doesn't seem fair!

I did call transportation to make sure that there wasnt an error and it was the correct information. I was also told that due to budget cuts (blah, blah, blah - I know all about the cuts, however I work in the inner city and things are MUCH worse than in the burbs where I live!) That ALL 23 children that are in his class ride on 1 bus and that is why it takes so long... I can understand this, however shouldn't they do their runs the same way as the older students to make it more fair? Why should my kid be stuck on an unairconditioned bus for that long?

I have gotten NO WHERE with main office... it's the same story. I plan on calling the superintendent's office Tuesday as well as sending a letter to each and every board member on the Board of Education... I may just end up having to speak at a board meeting too!
 
L

Liahona

Guest
Good luck. I've never had much success working with the transportation. If can you tie the length of the ride being harmful to your son and get it put in the IEP I could see you having a chance but otherwise I don't see how you could get them to change. My boys would always sleep on the bus as well. It was ok. They also took toys with them and the school did give them a snack right before school ended.
 
Top