Transportation NightmareI have been transporting my daughter to and from services/school for 5 1/2 years, recently I requested that the school arrange for transportation for her as we are no longer able to afford to transport her due to my husbands layoff. My daughter is 7 and has very little expressive language and has the cognition of a 2 year old, she becomes very agitated and anxious in unfamiliar situautions, the school offered us transportation on a public bus and even offered to throw in an aide for the first few days.... We sent my 20 year old son along for the ride and were shocked to find that the bus that she was to ride was packed (standing room only) and that the bus stopped at the local mental health dept and picked up an assortment of people among them was a gentleman that stared at my daughter the entire trip, about 20 minutes into the 1 hour ride home (we only live 10 minutes away) my daughter started screaming and proceeded to scream and be agitated the entire way home, during all of this the special needs child that was seated behind her started to imitate her and smack her in the back of the head. When she finally arrived home she was shaking and agitated for the rest of the night. The school seems to think that this is fine and that eventually she will just get used to it, I on the other hand cant just get over it and am angry that all of the other schools in the area have school buses except for the special needs school. They have dedicated buses for the general education kids, buses that do NOT allow adult passengers and yet the most vulnerable subset of children are placed on a public bus with little to no supervision with God knows who? We plan to reconvene the I.E.P. to hopefully address the transportation issue, any input would be greatly appreciated. Copied directly from Wrightslaw:
Transportation Transportation as a related service is included in an eligible student's IEP if the IEP team determines that such a service is needed. Transportation includes:
Public school districts must provide transportation to students with disabilities in two situations. These are:
If the IEP team determines that a student with a disability needs transportation to benefit from special education, it must be included in the student's IEP and provided as a related service at no cost to the student and his or her parents (Office of Special Education Programs, 1995). Not all students with disabilities are eligible to receive transportation as a related service. As Attachment 1 of the Federal regulations for IDEA '97 points out: It is assumed that most children with disabilities will receive the same transportation provided to nondisabled children, unless the IEP team determines otherwise. However, for some children with disabilities, integrated transportation may not be achieved unless needed accommodations are provided to address each child's unique needs. If the IEP team determines that a disabled child requires transportation as a related service in order to receive FAPE, or requires accommodations or modifications to participate in integrated transportation with nondisabled children, the child must receive the necessary transportation or accommodations at no cost to the parents. This is so, even if no transportation is provided to nondisabled children. (U.S. Department of Education, 1999a, p. 12551) A student's need for transportation as a related service and the type of transportation to be provided must be discussed and decided by the IEP team. Whether transportation goals and objectives are required in the IEP depends on the purpose of the transportation. If transportation is being provided solely to and from school, in and around school, and between schools, no goals or objectives are needed. If instruction is provided to a student to increase his or her independence or improve his or her behavior during transportation, then goals and objectives must be included in the student's IEP (Office of Special Education Programs, 1995). References Something else to bear in mind, I just found. If your school district is not providing needed transportation for your child, you can be reimbursed, for providing the transportation yourself. Make sure that your child's IEP, states that they need transportation as a related service, and that you will be reimbursed. A district may also be required to reimburse parents where: A. Transportation is needed to provide FAPE and the district fails to meet its obligation. I would argue your transportation is inadequate and have them reimburse you to transport your daughter. They do not have a bus for the special needs children because they can save money by sending them on the public bus, sadly way too many parents have allowed them to transport children in this manner for way to long. We have no plans to allow them to transport her in this way as the drivers are untrained in children with disabilities as well as being transported among the general population unsupervised is completely inappropriate in her case. We feel that if the neurotypical children have buses in our district then the special needs children should as well, I am just not sure exactly what rights they might be violating and how best to form my argument when I go against this. Incrediable. No way I would let my son ride on a public bus like that. I may complain about where I live, but he has a special needs bus with a trained driver AND aide at all times. What do they do with the preschoolers who are special needs? Hand to hand transfers are required there. They offer this transportation and only this transportation, they get everyone on the IEP team to sit there and say "It will be fine" if you dont agree you either quietly transport your own child or shut up, I have never seen an aide on one of these buses and highly doubt that there is a child impaired enough to ever qualify for one. The thing that burns my bum, is that they know that there are unmedicated psychotics as well as convicted sexual offenders that use these buses as modes for transportation (they should and have every right to) its the disabled children that never should have been put in this situation! This is absolutely inappropriate and unacceptable. If a NT child was transported to school is this manner, there would be an uproar.Sorry, I do not know the laws on this. You might want to consult with an advocate. Also, I am sure someone on this forum will be able to help. But this sounds like discrimination too me. _______________________ mom to 10 year old boy/girl twins (Asperger's/PDD-NOS) Wow im shocked! I cant believe they would allow an adult on the bus! What is wrong with these people? Your poor daughter im just glad ur son was there with her! I would be ranting and raving and I would not let her back on that bus. They have to figure something else out thats just ridiculous and why do they not have a bus for the special needs school? Seems strange. Good luck and keep us updated! they all lie to protect themselves and the districts! Don't believe a word they say. Ask your husband to homeschool your child while he is out of work! The director of special ed called today and informed me the neither her or the superintendent knew that the buses that were transporting the special needs kids were not dedicated buses, kind of strikes me as odd that the bus pulls up to the door of the school and the aides walk by other passengers to retrieve special needs children as they arrive at school..... I asked for an emergency IEP to address the transportation issue, How can they expect me to trust them with my child when every time I find something very disturbing everyone refuses to claim ownership. Either way, both the pediatrician and psychiatrist wrote letters stating that they felt that riding the bus 2 hours per day would cause her an extreme amount of anxiety considering her OCD and toileting issues and that they feel that she would benefit from intensive CBT, and would need an aide with her before attempting transport on the bus. Although I highly doubt I will be placing my child on a bus with them anytime soon, I am still hoping that they will resolve the situation so that the other children are in a safer position, there are so many times in my district that I wonder where in the heck the other parents are and why they turn a blind eye. the poor child! can your son drive? maybe he can take her The school is completely wrong. If you cannot get them to cooperate, I would file a complaint.It was always established on the IEP that transportation was needed and the box was checked, it said in parenthesis that "parent will transport We knew that she was eligible for transportation but felt that she were not capable of handling the type of transport that they were offering (and that was even before we knew how bad it was) When I explained this to the director of special ed, she made an offhand remark about "what a good deal they had been getting" and more or less offered $3.00 per day for transporting her the 12 miles to and from school.....even if we were to sit in the parking lot for her entire school day and not travel back home during the interim would it only cost us $3.00 per day I am thinking that I will ask for the IEP to reconvene to discuss transportation issues, the thing is I am not sure if we can go after reimbursement for the 5 1/2 years that we were denied FAPE by them not even offering to reimburse us although they obviously knew we were having to pay to transport her. Oh and the reason for the $3.00 reimbursement that was mentioned was that is how much the bus company charges to transportWow, I thought I'd heard everything but this really takes the cake. I definitely would contact an advocate and make a huge issue about this. In the interim, maybe you should request that your dd ride on the school bus with an aide. It's not a perfect solution but it has to be better than the public bus. Hope it all works out soon. |
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