First day - end of day sadness

malcivar

So yeah - a good number of our kids love riding the bus, so imagine my poor little guy today when everyone's leaving and the matron comes over and takes his classmate to the bus and not him.  No he's going home with grandpa because the bus company can't get his paperwork straightened out.  

He proceeded to start crying and sit on the ground.  He wanted to ride the bus.  

Now I'm trying to call the bus company for the Nth time and "this number isn't taking calls at this time"

GRRRRR!!!!   

malcivar

The problem lies solely at this point with the bus company.  We've checked that the District's system shows him with an updated school and shows him assigned to a route.  The problem is that the route paper the driver has does not include Chris and until that paper gets updated, she can't pick him up.  

The school is doing everything they can to help but they're as frustrated with this company as I am.  Apparently, yesterday, which mind you was the 2nd day of school, only 1 bus showed up.  4 buses are supposed to bring kids to the school but only 1 showed.  No parents were called; they just ended up either bringing the kids themselves or not bringing them at all.  Today, 3 of 4 showed up, one of which was Chris's bus.  Pardon the french, but it's a cluster****.  

IEP custodian?  I suddenly have this feeling that I should know this but I don't.  

Justinlove

malcivar:

IEP custodian?  I suddenly have this feeling that I should know this but I don't.  

 It may be called case manager as well.  In our county, the SpEd teacher is the case manager.  There is a SpEd supervisor over all the SpEd teachers if you need to go higher. 

malcivar

-auntie-:

Here's the thing. What happens or doesn't happen at the bus stop is still the responsibility of the school district whether they outsource their bus service or not. Since your child has an IEP, he is entitled to special consideration as in they are in violation if he isn't picked up.

And they've stepped in!

I called the bus company - again.  The office of pupil transportation gave me an alternate number to the company and it worked and the person I spoke to said that due to all the problems that they were experiencing the Board of Ed was coming in tomorrow and re-doing ALL the routes and that as such, Chris's new driver would be calling me Sunday night to let me know what time he's getting picked up.   

*crossing fingers* 

malcivar

-auntie-:

I hope this does the trick.

 

You and me both.  DH said "you called the office of pupil transportation?!?!?" to which I replied -  They made Christopher cry.  Now it's on.   

malcivar

-auntie-:

I was thinking of you yesterday and how bus situations can drive parents over the edge.

DS was working at the local rail road and I was talking to a couple of the characters who volunteer there. One of them is the manager of a bus company that serves two large school districts in NJ. It was the first week of school and this guy has a twitch in his eye already.

One of his drivers was assaulted this week by an irate mom. Seems there are two buses serving the same stretch of busy county highway. In the interest of safety, each bus collects the kiddos on the side of the street in the direction they're traveling. Mom tried to get her kids on the first bus to come, district and bus co want kids on the assigned bus in order to know where they are. Mom doesn't like that answer and hurls a larger ceramic mug of hot coffee at the drivers face. Nice.

I'm a little more understanding of the situation because both my mom and dad worked for the special ed school bus system until retiring.  Dad was a driver and mom was a matron.  So I know a little about first week mess-ups and they also helped to guide me on how to go about trying to get help.  Mom suggested reaching out to the office of pupil transportation, and sure enough they were loads of help.  

I can't even imagine hurling a mug, let alone WITH hot coffee in it at someone.  That's a little bit out there.  Poor driver!