Re: Special-needs kids ride the bus for hours

September 30, 2004

Thanks for sharing Irma. I know in our county the limit for bus

transportation one way is under one hour. If the school is further

of course it is a longer bus ride. Rochelle had and hour both to and

from school for two years. This year we put her in the base school.

The boundries have changed and they had built a new school so the

base school was not as crowded. The two factors made my decision

easy. Rochelle's ride is about 10 minutes now. She is still pulling

off her socks and shoes before arriving home. Last year she was

stripping off her shirt. This year we are potty training. Good thing

she is not on bus to long or they would have an accicent. I love

Rochelle's new teacher. She is answered prayer this year.

Diane

> http://www.thnt.com/thnt/story/0,21282,1062103,00.html

>

> Special-needs kids ride bus for hours

>

> Published in the Home News Tribune 9/26/04

> Parents, school officials worry about lengthy trips By KATHLEEN G.

> SUTCLIFFE

> STAFF WRITER

>

> On the first day of school, Sharon Merz waited on her stoop for

the

> school bus to drop off her 5-year old son, Jerry. She waited . . .

> and waited.

>

> At 5 p.m., Jerry finally arrived home from his first day in a

> special-needs kindergarten at North Brunswick's Livingston Park

> School. The bus trip from the school, five miles from his home in

> the Renaissance development, had lasted almost two hours.

>

> Diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar disorder, Jerry is assigned to a

van

> for other special-needs children. The van picks up students

> throughout the district and drops them off at their respective

> schools, some as far away as Piscataway.

>

> With a 7 a.m. pick-up and a 5 p.m. drop-off, Merz said her son's

> school day stretched 10 hours. " It was basically eat, sleep,

school. "

>

> Jerry's situation is not uncommon, and some fear extended bus

rides

> for special-needs children can even be dangerous.

>

> Wrigley, who until last week was a bus driver for Laidlaw

Bus

> Co., drove 10 special-needs students from Sayreville to Eatontown.

> She said the students she drove to the Harbor School, a school for

> children with autism and behavioral disabilities, were out of

> control after their 2.5-hour one-way trip.

>

> A bus driver for 20 years, Wrigley quit her job, protesting unsafe

> conditions.

>

> During one trip, Wrigley said, a student opened an emergency exit

at

> the rear of the bus while the bus was in motion and traveling 55

> miles per hour. The school-bus aide was attending to a child in

the

> front of the van at the time, she said.

>

> Wrigley said she feared she'd be held responsible if a child was

> injured during the trip.

>

> " What if I waited until next week and it happened again and

someone

> fell out of the bus? " she asked.

>

> Merz, too, worries her son's condition could be worsened by his

> extended bus rides.

>

> " He needs his medication by 4 p.m. and he's on the bus beyond that

> time. My son will get into an argument with the kids on the bus

> because he has not had his medication. He gets very angry and

> rageful, " Merz said. " It's definitely not a good situation for

these

> kids. "

>

> Among Wrigley's complaints was that she and other drivers are not

> specifically instructed how to handle special-needs children.

>

> Don Weir, Laidlaw's area general manager, said drivers for special-

> needs buses are " hand selected " but admitted the training for

those

> drivers is limited to instructions on how to handle a passenger's

> seizure.

>

> Weir acknowledged the difficulty of transporting special-needs

> children, referring to a bus route transporting 10 students to

> Harbor School. He would not confirm whether it was Wrigley's

former

> route.

>

> " We were taking 10 children to Harbor School. That's a lot. That's

a

> lot of kids. And the route was fairly long, " Weir said. " The

longer

> those children stay on that vehicle, the more chance they'll lose

> the attention span controlling their behavior. We had reports of

> pinching, biting, invading space. "

>

> But Weir said the company was unable to split the route, thereby

> reducing the number of children on the bus, without permission and

> compensation from the district.

>

> " We don't have a right to say we're not going to transport these

> students or we're going to split the route, " Weir said. " Our hands

> are tied in terms of what can and can't be done. "

>

> North Brunswick and Sayreville school officials say they've

> addressed concerns in both instances.

>

> Ray Kuehner, North Brunswick's transportation director, said

> adjustments were made to Jerry's bus route, including removing the

> Piscataway-bound student from the bus. Since then, Merz said,

> Jerry's pick-up time is 7:20 a.m. and his drop-off time is usually

> closer to 4:30.

>

> Still, Merz says her son struggles through his nine-hour day.

>

> Sayreville Superintendent Dennis Fyffe said Wrigley's former bus

> route was cut by 45 minutes and he's had no reports of behavior

> problems since Wrigley was replaced.

>

> But Fyffe said the larger issue of transporting special-needs

> students out of district remained.

>

> " I'm always concerned about the distance we send students to out-

of-

> district placements, " Fyffe said,

>

> Moran, business administrator for the Middlesex County

> Educational Services Commission, coordinates the transportation of

> 2,000 special-needs students every day.

>

> He says that while districts are required by the state to

> consolidate special-education bus routes, there is no state

mandate

> limiting the time a child can spend on a school bus.

>

> Moran said his office typically handles transportation for special-

> needs students enrolled in out-of-district private schools.

>

> " The districts send names of students, where they need to go, and

we

> attempt to combine the districts for greater efficiency, " Moran

> said. Private school tuition and transportation for special-needs

> students is paid with public funds, so districts are encouraged to

> share services, like transportation, to cut down on the cost of

> educating special-needs children.

>

> But greater economic efficiency doesn't necessarily reduce the

time

> students spend on buses.

>

> " The problem is, when you transport students to these private

> schools, the distance is considerable and the ride can get

excessive

> at times, " Moran said.

>

> Arthur Ball, Director of Government Relations for the New Jersey

> Center for Outreach and Services for the Autism Community, said

> parents of autistic children wrestle with the dilemma of where to

> send their children, weighing a school's speciality against the

> length of the bus ride.

>

> " Parents will look far and wide for the program that's best suited

> to deal with their children's needs. " Ball said " It would be

lovely

> if those programs could be in every community. "

>

> Fyffe said the Sayreville school district is attempting to do just

> that by instituting a program to educate more special-needs

students

> in district.

>

> " We've brought four classes of students back into Sayreville, "

Fyffe

> said, pointing to two new special-needs preschool classes at

Selover

> School and two elementary school classes at Eisenhower School.

>

> " We don't put students on the bus, we educate them right here, "

> Fyffe said. " We think it's important to educate students as close

to

> home as possible. And we think we can offer a superior program. "

>

> Fyffe said the program keeps a total of 18 special-needs students

in

> the district but he hopes to see the program expand. He

acknowledged

> that students with severe learning disabilities will likely have

to

> continue being transported out of district.

>

> Although Fyffe had no comparative costs available, he said he

> expected the program would save the district money.

September 30, 2004

Diane your comment about the shoes and socks brought back memories and a

smile this morning. began to ride a bus to school when he was 4

years old, he is now 41. In those early years he would take off his

shoes and sometimes they would end up being tossed out the window.

Louise

Re: Special-needs kids ride the bus for hours

* Thanks for sharing Irma. I know in our county the limit for

bus