Charlie’s bus ride home from school seems to take some 15 minutes, hence my daily rush from work to get to home. The December 8th Newsday reports that more than 1000 special needs children are”sent off Long Island for education and sometimes housing, costing schools and the state millions of dollars.” Two New York state lawmakers and parents are calling on education officials to change regulations that currently limit how many children can be educated at “special sites” on Long Island.

How far does your child—or do you—travel to school?

(Not, it’s hoped, two hours.)

I mean, at least two hours each way, to school and then back home? That’s how long 5-year-old Brandon Montanez, who’s autistic, rides the bus to get from his home in Bensonhurst to Learning Springs School in Manhattan, according to yesterday’s WCBStv. Brandon’t bus ride used to be 90 minutes long each way—-already too long—-New York’s Office of Pupil Transportation changed his route (and his driver and bus matron) on short notice and, more than understandably, it hasn’t been easy for Brandon:

“It’s been a nightmare,” says Michelle Montanez, Brandon’s mother. “He was jumping on his seat, he was throwing off his seat belt, he told them that he wanted to scream and he wanted to do it. He started banging his head against the side of the bus and he’s been doing it every day since he’s been on this route. It’s too much for him, it’s too long.”

2 hours each ways is a long bus ride for any of us and not the way for any student to start a long day of learning.

The parents of a now 9-year-old autistic boy who was left for approximately 4 1/2 hours on a schoolbus have filed a lawsuit against the schools, the district’s board of education, the bus driver, and the aides. As reported in the August 1st MyCentralJersey.com, on July 7, 2003, then 4-year-old Tyler Mellito, 9 (now of Chambersburg, Pa) was not taken off the bus by the aides or by the driver, and was left restrained in his seat and locked on the enclosed bus:

The suit claims that as a result of the carelessness, recklessness and negligence of the defendants, Tyler suffered great pain and suffering as well as sustaining severe and permanent injuries, mental anguish requiring medical attention at the time and into the future.

The parents also claim that the defendants’ actions deprived them of the services and companionship of their son, and are seeking damages, punitive damages, interest and legal costs.

When I read stories like these, my thoughts go first to what it must have felt like to be a child, trapped on a locked schoolbus on a summer day, having seen everyone get off but oneself—-and then to what I as a parent would feel if this happened to my child. How could this have happened?

Not again: This past Tuesday, an 8-year-old autistic boy, Devin Slaney, was “misplaced” on a school bus that was to bring him home following his first day of summer school in Edmonds, Washington, HeraldNet reports. Said his mother, Rebecca Slaney: “‘I understand accidents happen. Buses get into accidents, but they cannot lose children.’”

The driver of a minivan taking a 9-year-old autistic boy, Justin Colon, to summer camp got lost for four hours and failed to bring the child to his program. When Justin’s mother, Dawn Gorman, contacted the bus driver by cell phone, the driver was unable to say where he was and stopped answering the phone after awhile. Gorman then called the police, as reported in today’s Asbury Park Press:

Capt. Bruce Hall of the Marlboro Police Department, said one of his officers spotted the vehicle a mile or so from the camp facility and brought the child to the police department. The driver, who had an unauthorized person — a friend — with him in the minivan, said he was lost for that period of time, Hall said.

Gorman refused to send her child with the same transportation company — Severe Transportation — although the company sent a new driver on Tuesday.

She said the Harbor Haven school in Marlboro, which conducts the summer camp, contacted her and offered to pick up and drop off her son so she could get reliable transportation.

The school told her not to worry about the cost and that they would wait to see if the Edison school district would pay for it, she said.

Bill Muzzio, transportation director for the Edison school district, said the board terminated the contract with Severe Transportation for the run to the Marlboro campsite and initiated a new contract with Harbor Haven on Tuesday. The board is still using Severe Transportation for other runs.

As of Tuesday evening, Gorman was still not sure if she would send her child in the school transportation service or keep him home.

“It’s a very difficult situation after what I’ve been through,” she said.

I’m pretty sure my son would have been upset to find himself on a bus (and not his usual schoolbus) after one hour, but four hours? And Charlie would have been quite aware that the driver was lost. Am grateful he has summer school in district, with a bus from the county’s education commission.

Charlie’s teacher sent home a form about the field trips that are planned for summer school. I checked “yes” for all of them and then kept misplacing the form. First it found its way to my desk, gravitated atop the Language Master, and briefly completely disappeared. I wanted to stick it in Charlie’s backpack but he kept taking it out (he likes to put his favorite things in the backpack when it’s not schooltime—-photos, some small photo albums, 3 certain books).

Hence, my solution.

Yes, the form was handed in on the last day of school—though I did find myself running down the stairs to hand Jim and Charlie the flowers for the bus driver and aide.

Less than 13 percent of American children walk to school, a new study reports. Parents cited safety as a main reason, in the form of the “speed and volume of traffic students would encounter en route to school; the possibility of crime; and the weather.” A researcher from the University of Michigan noted that the physical environment—-the presence of sidewalks and some kind of buffer between the sidewalk and traffic—-made a difference in whether or not children walked home. Children who lived more than three-quarters of a mile away from their school also tended not to walk home.

Many autistic children do not walk home for reasons that are most of all about safety: Parents routinely note stories of children darting into intersections filled with heavy traffic and describe their child as having “no sense of danger.” Charlie seems to be learning to stop at the sidewalk until he is told to cross; he is always with someone, and he would certainly be, too, if he were to walk home. We briefly considered him riding his bike to summer school last year because we lived about a seven minute bike ride away, but ended up not doing this. Getting in some physical exercise does seem to be potentially a good way for Charlie to start the day (as it is, Jim often starts his with a mile and a half sprint-walk to the train station, after putting Charlie on the bus).

But this is what Jim has found in his daily sprints to the train: The town where we live seems engineered to discourage walking home from school. There are few sidewalks and plenty of cars (and large ones) that make it clear who owns the road. Students either take the bus or get dropped off by their parents and cars. Of course safety first is key but it’s a far cry from the days when I walked home and let myself into the house in the suburbs of Contra Costa County in northern California (I was in the second grade), and when Jim walked home to school, from school, and for lunch in Pittsburgh and northern New Jersey (he was in the first grade). Those were different days!