School bus with 6 autistic students went missing for hours in Brooklyn, report finds
Six nonverbal autistic students were missing for hours before arriving at a Brooklyn school more than four hours late after a substitute bus driver got lost, according to a city investigation.
The incident was reported on Dec. 16 of last year involving students enrolled at P.S. 289 in Crown Heights.
Students who ride the bus are normally expected to arrive between 8:20 a.m. and 9 a.m., but the six students did not reach the school until 1:25 p.m.
School officials had no way of knowing where the bus was for much of the morning, according to a report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District,
The investigation found that the bus company, Consolidated Transit, was unresponsive as school officials sought information about the missing students. The Department of Education and NYPD were contacted.
At 11:45 a.m., a dispatcher told the school the driver was lost and would arrive within about 15 minutes. The bus did not arrive until 1:25 p.m.
The dispatcher also told the school the bus' live GPS tracker was not working. However, Special Commissioner Anastasia Coleman said the investigation found the tracking system was functioning.
One student arrived having "urinated on herself and removed her diaper and leggings, with her dress still on," according to the investigation.
The report found the driver assigned to the route that day was a substitute. Investigators also found that the bus matron, who had nearly 20 years of experience, made no effort to communicate with the driver or contact the school.
A spokesperson for Consolidated Transit said both employees have been placed on administrative leave and are prohibited from operating buses or interacting with students.
The Department of Education and investigators said both the driver and matron were suspended immediately. They were also assigned codes that effectively bar them from working for DOE vendors in the future. Those codes are not visible to outside contractors, such as private schools.
