Hi!

Bad Bad day today....got a card from the school bus company today in the mail with our pickup and dropoff times on it. FYI, school goes from 8:08am-3:05pm. Our pickup/dropoff times are: 6:41am and 4:59pm!!! So Caitlin would be on the bus for over 3.5 hours/day!! And we only live 10 minutes from the school! I was livid!! I called my neighbor behind me whose daughter is same age as Caitlin and her times are 7:07am/3:42pm. But on a different bus. So they are putting Caitlin on a big wheelchair bus. And I think that she is the only wheelchair student in Sherwood (where we live Sherwood, Kaukauna & Hollandtown all go to Kaukauna schools). I don't understand why they wouldn't just get a shorty bus with one w/c spot like she was on last year. Believe me there are enough kids in our neighborhood that they could fill up a short bus by going up and down 2 streets. Thank God I found this site today so I could vent to some ears that understand! I mean, Caitlin is only 5 years old and to expect her to sit on a bus for almost 4 hrs a day?! She just began holding her head up good last year! And the year before last we actually would put a stretchy headband around her forehead to keep it up and not slumped over since we (bus driver & me) were afraid of her not breathing!!

I did call a friend of mine who works for the rival bus company to see if there were rules about length of time on a bus and she said no, but that her company doesn't make such long routes and that the one Kaukauna is using is notorious for doing that. She did suggest trying to call and get it changed one way to a better time, I told her I would be picking up Caitlin from school 3x/wk for therapy appts so hopefully I will try her way and see if I can get the morning pickup changed to a later time and then just pick her up every day after school vs making her stay on the bus for 2 hrs. But it just galls me to think that someone made this route up and thought it would be a good idea for a 5 year old girl in a wheelchair to ride a bus for 4 hrs a day! UNREAL!!! All to save a *ucking dollar!!!! MAD MAD MAD!!!

Lisa O.

Hi, First the law says that your daughter can't be made to ride
a bus any longer than a regular child. So is the child you called
your neighbor about a regular child riding to the same school.

If so then you have leverage to use. You can say, I want a pick
up at 7:10 just like the neighbor child, you can fudge the time a
little. But you probably wont get it much later than that.

I would then use the fact that you are picking up for therapy 3 times
a week, so since you are doing this, you will then just pick up the
other 2 days, because it will confuse everyone otherwise. And I
would remember that you should be getting paid for mileage for
picking up too. I would contact a advocate about this.

NOt sure what state your in, I"m a Parent advocate in Indiana.

Donna

Hi!

Yes, the neighbor's girl is "normal"....and actually Caitlin will be in regular kindergarten so I just assumed they would bus her with her peers. The neighbor girl and Caitlin even had the same teacher last year for pre-k (but we were AM and she was in the PM class). BTW, we live in Wisconsin. Is it federal law that says that about the time? I remember a few years ago when Caitlin was in Early Childhood there was a big deal made by a parent that their kid was getting picked up before 7am and I thought I had heard people saying at some meeting back then that kids were not supposed to be on the bus for more than an hour. I hope to talk to some more friends before monday so I can have some logic and laws to back me up when I call the bus company. (A different neighbor is a principal at another elementary school so I was going to ask her about it) But let me know if that is federal law or not because that would be a great backup for me to use when I make the call!!

Thanks!
Lisa O.

WOW....
That is a long time for a child to have to sit on a bus.
I would call the school and raise hell.
They should as you said geta short bus for those who need it


Please keep us updated on how things go

Wish you luck
Hugs

Can you apply for a transport allowance there? 3.5 hours a day on the bus when the school is only 10 minutes away is totally ridiculous! If Caitlin is approved for that, it would help cover petrol costs if you have to drive her.

Amigo22

Lisa,

Does the school district have someone you can go to,like a supervisor who works with the district,as well as the bus company?Seems to me,that they should have someone like that??Are there other parents going through the same thing???

Kristin