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

Hi!

Thanks for the replies! I guess it should not be a total shock to me since there is a lady in my neighborhood book club who I remember complaining about the busing last year...her son is almost done with school though (and he is mobile, but has cognitive delays)...I just assumed that he rode an older kids bus. She said he would often be home late due to the bus since a lot of parents of w/c kids weren't on time to help get the kids off the bus and the driver would wait vs taking them to the police station like they are supposed to if the parents don't come out to get them on time.

When Caitlin started going to school in her chair they actually bought a new w/c short bus, I assumed they would just use it for her this year too and work the routes out that way and transport her with her peers, not with older kids who go to different schools all over town. (Caitlin's school only has kids from pre-k to grade 2). It sucks being that it is sunday and I can't do anything at all until tomorrow. I am planning on trying the nice way first like my friend suggested....she did say if that doesn't work to "pull out the big guns" and have stuff written into her IEP like a maximum time on bus or such things. I looked at her IEP and it just say a w/c accessible bus will transport her to school. I never thought to be more specific and say transported with her peers or lingo like that....but next IEP meeting it will get changed!! I guess all that is learn as you go!!

Lisa O.

I had a similar problem with my son when he was in pre-school/K.
Not only did he have long bus rides but he would often get to school 10-15 minutes after the bell rang and would leave early. I got a letter from his doctor stating that it was medically harmful for him to remain in his wheelchair /one position more than 45 minutes because of his CP. It had a nice boomerang effect of making the classroom aides get him out of his chair through out the day as well. I also threaten to file an civil rights complaint in regards to the late drop off /early pick up because he was being denied the same amount of educational time as his typical peers simply because he was disabled.
Joanne

all good tips from folks here.

remember if just calling it to their attention doesn't work and you feel an IEP amendment is in order you do not have to wait for the next IEP. As parent you have the right to call an IEP meeting at any time for any reason. You can call one to deal with just ONE issue or to amend one segment of the iep.

with bus issues in the past I've found that calling the special ed administration gets me referred to the person whose role is to liason with the bus company about transportation and that issues are generally resolved touts uite. Good communication and a little patience are essential.


Our transportation policy doesn't allow a student to routinely be on the bus for over an hour and they get really panickky (now) if exigent circumstances result in a long trip. But I do remember them taking two hours to get my son home several times one year because they were short a driver and dispatch looked at the routes and saw "8 kids" assigned to two buses and just combined those 8 with the driver who was there. They didnt' consider how many were w/c users or took more time because of behavioural needs and the fact that the routes carried them to all corners of the county. They just needed to be informed by me and the sped liasson why the ride was so long and why that was unacceptable to go "oh". and fix it.

Hopefully all it will take is a conversation between you and the sped departmetn to get it taken care of. But if you find nothing happens very quickly have another conversation and back it up with a written letter documenting the 2 conversations and that you expect them to resolve the problem.

Another thing is the flies-with honey approach you are taking is in my opinion usually most helpful. Remember that transporting ALL those kids to all those schools is a huge job (I wouldn't want that head ache) and EVERY year there are bugs to work out during the first couple of weeks for both regular ed and special ed kids. THere's always a snarl the first few days with the regular routes.

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the replies! I caught flies with honey!! I went to school this morning to look at the class lists to see who was all in her class with her and stopped inside and talked to the principal (had some other issues too like if her w/c would fit at the lunch table since it was too low, we had it raised up this summer and now we checked today-it fits perfectly!!) anyway, after we checked her chair at a table I mentioned the bus times to him and he was like "oh wow, that has to be a typo cause we don't like them to be on the bus for more than 1 hr". He also suggested calling and verifying the times.

Well I did one better! My sister now rents an apt across from Caitlin's school so I dumped my kids over on her and drove to the bus company in person (it is only down the road from her place). I think that worked the best since when I went into the office the girl by the desk had subbed a few times last year and knew Caitlin personally! She was like "oh Caitlin, she is a cutie and she is so funny!" (Caitlin is very chatty!) So then they checked the computer and gave me 7:05am (an extra 20min which was great with me!)...well in the meantime a girl came over to the counter and it was the new bus driver that we were going to have this year! And she needed the route looked at too since she had just driven the dry run of it so I waited and they switched some things around and it got even better for us! So now our pickup time is 7:12am and dropoff 4:08pm!! (from 6:41am/5:01pm)!!! AWESOME!!! I think it was the right approach definitely to be nice about it...when I first walked up I just said "oh I bet you're getting a lot of calls today...I was just wondering if this (showed card) was a typo?"...cause that is when she saw it was Caitlin's name on the card. Well I am on cloud 9 now that this drama is over....excited for school to start...I had all her supplies bought for over a month now cause I didn't want to be stressing out at the last minute! I feel like a huge weight is off my back and I am glad that she will fit at the lunch tables good too since I was a little bit worried about that. Then she can have a bit of choice where she wants to sit. Another good thing is the neighbor behind us, their daughter is in the same class with Caitlin so she hopefully will be friends with her and can easily do some playdates and such. All's well that ends well!!

Lisa O.