should I complain?

I'm trying to decide if I should call the girls school and complain about what happened today or not. The weather forecast was for a snowy day with 4-6 inches so the high school and middle school had an early dismal of an hour and that the elementary students will arrive home close to the regularly scheduled time. I asked all the other moms a tthe bus stop this morning what to expect. They all said it will be regular time. I then checked the local newspaper during the day and it only said early dismal for High school and middle school.
The snow never came, and i kind of forgot about the girls possibly getting home early. I was busy at work and left at 3:30, which is about ten minutes earlier that i normally leave work. I was bout half way home and my phone buzzed. I checked it at the next red light i stopped at, and it was a neighbor telling me that my girls were in her house and to take my time getting home.
I was home about 10-15 before the bus normally gets home. I went to get the girls from my neighbor's and she told me that my girls and her daughter who is in 4th grade just came in house. Which means that the bus driver did not see if an adult was home. Not a big deal for a 4th grader but kind of a big deal for two kindergarten girls.

In talking with a few other parents, most had similar stories. One boy got home at 2:45, school doesn't get out till 3:20. Another unlocked her front door just in case and her girls let themselves in (5 and 7 years old). Another friend with a 5 year old lives on a dead end. The bus drops the kids off at the end of the street since it can't fit down the street. Her daughter was walked home by an older kids.

 

Yeah, I would call. I'd be really upset if they just left my 2 5 yr. old without knowing someone was home. And the school should have put out reports, calls, etc. that they were sending kids home early. I would hope that our bus drivers would make sure that an adult was home before dropping the kids off especially if it's an early dismissal day. Even for my 2nd grader, she always looks to make sure my garage is open and that I'm watching out the window when she drives by. My KG'ers get dropped off at home (they have am KG). I don't necessarily trust my neighbors to take them in (sad, I know) or that they would go to the neighbors. My oldest has a key and knows how to get in incase I'm ever running a couple mins. late, but the twins don't.

 

I would probably call the school to find out what happened. Considering you said the middle and high school definitely had early dismissal and you weren't sure about the elementary school. I know for our school we get an automated call if there is a two hour delay, school closing, and we get a call a couple days before about scheduled school closings like for winter break or for one day like presidents day. I also would not trust my neighbors to take my kids in and I don't think my kids would even go to the neighbors house anyway. You are very lucky your neighbor was around to take them in.

 

If I were you I'd call. If there was no notification of your elementary school students being sent home early, then you were there on time to meet them. I'm not sure of your districts policy when it comes to kindergarteners, but ours is if there isn't an adult home to wave to the driver, the student is not let off the bus and is taken back to school, when a call is made to parents. That would concern me, as much as the girls getting out of school early with no notification. Personally I would be a very loud squeaky wheel until I got some satisfactory answers. Not rude, but I would want answers as to why the safety of these children was compromised (IMO).

I for one, am thankful your neighbor was there and that the girls were okay with walking home with her child.

 

Our school gas to give notification to parents before closing, releasing early or anything. What about the kids who don't ride buses? Were they sitting there till normal parent pick up time? I'd be really upset about them just dropping them off too.

 

I would definitely call. When we had a bus (lost courtesy busing this year), the driver wouldn't EVER let a child 3rd grade and under off the bus unless they had a sibling in 4th or 5th on the bus or their parent was there to get them. We were lucky in that our driver would let the kids off if one of 3 of us were there--some of the other drivers wouldn't even do that. Most schools try to avoid early dismissal of elementary kids for that very reason--it is a logistic nightmare to see if there is proper supervision at home. That said, we have an automatic call which goes to EVERY number on record, which means cell phones and work phone which don't normally get notifications. Funny aside, one year DH discovered a few of his co-workers lived in our town when all the cell phones rang simultaneously for an early dismissal

 

I would definitely call. Our town also uses the automated phone calls and emails to let us know about cancellations, early dismissals, etc. We don't take the bus, but I know that the teacher doesn't release the students unless she sees the parent and/or there is a note that someone else is picking them up. I would think that they wouldn't release the kids from the bus if there was no one there to meet them.

 

Their school district has to call in case of closure after the day has started. THey also will NOT let kinders leave school or the bus with out seeing an adult that belongs to them. If there is not one at the stop they circle around or take them back to school. I would call the school and the transportation/bus department.

 

I would definitely call. The bus driver could have decided to let the girls off the bus since they were with an older child, but still, the parents need to know about early dismissals! And, I'd say, the transportation dept of your SD should first find out if that's OK with you!
We get an automated phone call if anything unusual happens (power outage, for example) at our kids' schools, and we also get one if there is a snow day. So, the phone calls can go out district-wide too. Maybe your school could benefit from that sort of system, or even see if your PTO/A would b able to start a phone tree (to notify parents, who would be interested enough to follow through for free).

 

Thanks. Our whole district is bussed, even if you live around the corner from the school. One boy who lives around the corner from the school was home 45 minutes early.
I'm going to call the school on Monday and complain. The more I thought about it last night the more annoyed I got. I have no clue if the bus driver has the emergency contact card for the bus (yep we had to fill out a card who they could be left with if we were not home) or not, but they were not even with that neighbor. I just think about the what ifs. I know the school is going to say but you were notified the night before about the early dismal. But saying the elementary school kids will be close to regular time is not a half hour or more early. Also my girls school is the southern most elementary school in the distict and part of our area did have 2 inches of snow. But most kids were only home 5-10 minutes early.

 

I would be livid!!! Call!

 

The girls do not ride the bus but our neighborhood has 1 general stop where everyone gets off and goes from there.

 

Am I the only person that lives in a district where they don't notify parents specifically?

They post closings and dismissal's on their website and it's the parents' responsibility to find out. Honestly if it weren't for Facebook, I'd never find out when my kids' school is closed. :unsure:

 

The girls school calls but it is to my home phone. They rarely leave school early and on bad weather days I am always checking the website.

On a side note I cannot imagine if the busdriver checked to make sure children were being attended by an adult when they dropped off. Can you imagine how long that would take?

 

I have to say I agree. To me the bus driver's responsibility is to drive the kids safely to their bus stop and that's where it ends. I would be upset that the school didn't say for sure whether or not there was early dismissal, but I don't think the driver did anything wrong.

 

Like I said earlier, in our district, kindergarteners are not to be let off without an adult being SEEN. So yes the driver will wait, beep the horn etc, if no one shows, he/she is NOT to let the child off the bus, but to return to the school with the child. I guess the safety of the kids is more important than the 'extra time' it could take. I have known at least 2 drivers in our area who lost their jobs because they didn't take that extra time, and a child (5/6 yrs old) was left unattended outside a locked house. I will say, that their concern for the safety of our children seems to end after kindergarten. That's all I'll say about my issues with my kids bus company and the school districts response to our concerns.

 

Our district is the same way. They do not allow Kindergartners (and I think even 1st graders) off without an adult. They actually took my 1st grader back to school last year b/c I got stuck in traffic and was a few minutes late to the bus stop. Now she's in 2nd grade and I can see the bus stop from our house unlike last year. The busdriver still looks to make sure I'm home as she passes by and I make sure to wave from my front window or the driveway as she drives past so she can see that I'm home. I'd rather they take that extra time for safety.

 

The school district that my two go to calls the home number, cell numbers, emails and posts on the website so we are notified when they are off, 2 hour delay, early dismissal, etc. I think it is great because there is never second guessing.

 

I would be upset also. Our district has an automated system to call for these types of things although this year they call our home number so if they got out early, I would not be home to get the call.

At our school, the Pre-k, K and 1st are supposed to have a yellow plastic zip tie on their backpacks. This is to let bus driver know that they are not to be let off the bus unless their is an older sibling with them or an adult to meet the bus. When the girls were in K, my DH was late getting to the bus stop and my older DD's whole class missed their buses (whole other story) and the bus driver just let the twins off by themselves. They did have other children to walk home with and my DH was at the house but they still should have been taken back to school per policy. I cut the yellow tags off of their backpacks right then. I never liked them because I felt they targeted the children as being younger anyway. They next year when the teacher put the tie on their backpacks, I again cut them off.

We now pick up the girls from school.

 

That is unacceptable to me and I would call but then again I am "that mom" that will call if I am unhappy about something. The idea that a kindergartener was left on his own sounds like grounds for discipline on the drivers part.

 

I'd also call. IS it a large district? I remember the bus driver knew all sorts of things, like which mothers worked, who was allowed to go home with who, who had another relative living in the district, etc. The bus driver was like a special type of care giver. But I went to a very to school in a very small district.

 

After talking to the other moms the next morning, I wound up not calling. There was 2 or 3 other moms at the bus stop who were all willing to take my girls till I came home not to mention the house they did go into. Kind of funny thing is another boy was not allowed off the bus since his mom's car was not on the drive way. Bus did the rest of the stops and then drove back to his house to drop him off. The bus driver honked the horn and waited a bit at each stop. I can't even imagine how early he would have been if he didn't do that at every stop.

I would say that we have a large school district, I think the girls school has 700 students grades pre-K through 5th but our neighborhood is really close knit. I know that if I am ever late getting home, there are always neighbors who I can call and have keep my girls for a bit.

 

I know I am late to the post with this but I am sooo surprised all these people have bus drivers that have to look for adults at the stop. I can't even imagine that. I can't see the bus stop from my house and our driver doesn't even know where my kids live. He is great but there is no way he would know who is who. I think there are about 15 kids at the bus stop. As far as school closings go...I go on the website. If we have an early closing we signed up to get phone calls but not everyone signed up for that.