School Bus (Minneapolis, Minnetonka, Wayzata: living, buses, safety)

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Myprettypony

So we have settled in on a town near Minneapolis. I have a young child in elementary school and have been told there are no requirements for a parent or guardian to pick up their Kindergarten or other young elementary aged children from the bus stop. If there are no parent or guardian to meet the child, the only requirement is that the bus driver to bring the child to the correct bus stop. I have been told that this is the policy of all of the school disticts here.

As a parent of young children, this seems crazy to me! Of course i am now running scenarios in my mind like "what if i get i a car accident or drop dead and my child is dropped off and cant get inside in the freezing cold winter?". Anyone have any insight? Or some encouraging words to calm me down? Thanks!

When I was growing up in Minnetonka, we just walked from the house to the bus stop. I remember my Mom coming up to the bus stop a couple of times when I was starting kindergarten, but it wasn't that big a deal ... there were a dozen of us there, the neighborhood kids all knew each other from outside of school, so we all waited together at the bus stop and I knew enough to know which bus number and stop was mine when I came home. It wasn't that hard.

Of course, my Mom was a stay at home mom, so I could always get inside. The door was open. If for some reason she couldn't be around, we stayed at our next door neighbors or up at one of our friends' houses until parents came home.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Purjed

Wow, the advice given here is terrible. 3rd grade and below should only be let off the bus to a guardian. There was no guardian since it was the wrong stop so the driver should not have let the child off the bus. It is the drivers job to make sure children get back to their guardians, not the child or a neighbors child. Shaking my head.

Why? Did you not train your child to get off the bus at the correct stop? Most kids are more than capable of getting off the bus and walking home. If you recently moved to the area, perhaps you should have spent more time showing your DD the bus route and where to get off. As for having another child help, it's called living in a neighborhood, people help each other out. Why is that so terrible?

[Purjed]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Why? Did you not train your child to get off the bus at the correct stop? Most kids are more than capable of getting off the bus and walking home. If you recently moved to the area, perhaps you should have spent more time showing your DD the bus route and where to get off. As for having another child help, it's called living in a neighborhood, people help each other out. Why is that so terrible?

Here's why it is terrible: You speak of a child as if they are a dog. Children are children and make mistakes. Bus drivers are paid to bring children to and from school and are trained to drop them off at the right spot. The onus is on the bus driver, not a six year old or even a neighbors kid. God forbid something happens to the kid while at the wrong bus stop, who is responsible? THE BUS DRIVER!

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by Purjed

Wow, the advice given here is terrible. 3rd grade and below should only be let off the bus to a guardian. There was no guardian since it was the wrong stop so the driver should not have let the child off the bus. It is the drivers job to make sure children get back to their guardians, not the child or a neighbors child. Shaking my head.

If you're that paranoid, why not just pick your kid up at school?

I doubt kids getting off at the wrong stop is a big problem. It's unfortunate that it did happen to the OP's daughter, but odds are that it won't happen again. We're talking kids in elementary school here. They are old enough to handle this. The OP's daughter had a bad experience, and had it extra tough because she's brand-new to the area and didn't recognize her stop and perhaps didn't yet know the other kids in her neighborhood who also get off at her stop, but I bet she does now. I grew up taking the bus to and from school. I knew my bus number, I knew my stop, I knew my house. It's really not difficult.

[1stpontiac]

Yeah, probably a bit unrealistic to expect the bus driver to remember every single kid and what stop they get off at, and be able to account for days when the kids are supposed to do something different, etc.

Kudos to the bus drivers who do go out of their way to help out the little ones, though. I remember my bus driver when I was very young taking me up near the door and pointing out the animal decals under the number and saying, "you always ride the elephant" (or whatever the animal was) to make sure I knew to get on the right bus on the way home.

[Myprettypony]

Our family moved from a state where it was standard that children under the age of 8 had to be met at the bus stop. If a child did not have a parent or older sibling present, the bus driver had to beep his horn and call the parent. If there was no response, that driver was required to drive the child back to school. I know bus drivers from other states not where we were from who have the same policy. I have friends from NC, OH, VA, and other states who have told me that thier district has similar
policies. I had shown my child several times where our stop was but unfortunately the previous stop looks similar and she made a mistake.

It is surprising to me that the schools here do not have a similar policy. I've read that there were a few child luring attempts last year in our area where children were walking home alone from a bus stop. While I will always meet my children at their stop, the fact that the driver allowed a child off of an incorrect stop and showed no concern and didn't even tell me where she left my child was very upsetting. And what happens if a caretaker has a true emergency and is unreachable and a young child is left outside by himself in the winter?

There were two articles this week about kindergarteners in Minneapolis who were left at the wrong stop. One was dropped off at a homeless shelter. Both times the mothers were waiting at the correct stop and the bus driver did the exact same thing that ours did. Shrug their shoulders and left. I can tell you that this would never have happened if the districts had a policy in place. At the very least the bus drivers should check the child's bus stop before letting them off during the first week of school.

Lesson learned, I can't expect that I'll be receiving the same services in a new state nor assume that parenting styles will be the same in a completely different part of the country. I think where we were from, everyone was hyper vigilant and that's not necessarily the correct way of doing things, but that's what I am used to.

[HiFi]

Policy should depend on the environment, if kids are getting kidnapped the policy should be more strict, clearly. If not the kids should be given some room to breathe and grow in, (and the parents some room to relax in).

[QuietBlue]

I don't think I was ever met at the bus stop the entire time I rode the bus to and from school, and it was rare that anyone else I rode with was either. I had no idea this was a common thing in other parts of the country. How do they handle kids that walk?

[golfgal]

I'm glad we live in an area where kids can get themselves off the bus on their own and not have to worry about it, but the again, our kids walked to school at that age, 7 blocks each way, never had an issue either. I'd rather teach my kids to be self reliant.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

I always wonder how picky they are in hiring people to drive school buses. Is that a high paying job that would lure a smart person?

Not a high paying job, but it's not always an easy one. A friend of mine drives a school bus for our local school district, but she's a specialist who drives special needs children. I guess it can be quite challenging at times, but she loves the ability to help those kids.