grrrr. those buses

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
grrrr. those buses
8
Fri, 09-02-2005 - 2:37pm

Last week the notification came in from the SD regarding bus routes.

Peter is on the minibus, to be picked up at our house at 8:58
Siobhan is on the big bus, to be picked up at the corner at 8:56.

Needless to say, that is NOT happening. Siobhan isn't taking the big bus. She would fall apart. I would rather send her to school in a taxi. Plus; that two-places-at-once thing is not a skill I have yet mastered.

So I call the SD. "You should have put it in the IEP back in April" they say, helpfully. So I forgot. (and why was it up to *me* to remember, anyway?).

So we have been goign back-and-forth and today the SD told me that is was OK to put her on the minibus with Peter. Not an optimist, I just called the bus company to confirm that *their* understanding is the same. It isn't. Although the guy was appalled that a classified kindergartner had been scheduled to take the big bus; without paperwork from the SD, she can't go on the minibus. It will take at least three school days for the change to take effect.

Talk about getting off to a bad start! I'm furious!

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2004
Fri, 09-02-2005 - 3:05pm

Paula,

Buses are such a hassle!!! I take my boys to school. I was also told that since we are attending a school that is not our "home" school....we wouldn't be able to have bus services anyway. But the day before school started, the bus driver called to CONFIRM that she was picking them up in front of the house. HELLO???? Dh took that call...he doesn't know anything. He just said that we would be taking the kids not using the bus.

HOW can they pick up my boys??? They said it wasn't possible???!!!! They'd probably lose my children or something!!! And when I go to the school to pick them up----buses everywhere, teachers frantic trying to make sure everyone gets on the right bus, and some buses actually CHANGING their numbers!!!! They're just confusing everyone!!!

Michelle

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Fri, 09-02-2005 - 4:44pm

Michelle,

For some reason, Peter does much better if the bus takes him, than if I do. Siobhan likes the bus too. Go figure! I am OK with them going on the minibus, as that is a much more controlled environment than the regular bus.

Odd that your district said one thing and then did another.

But the best bussing story I know came from a friend of mine: The first day of camp, the bus arrived a little earlier than expected. Flustered, my friend packed her kids onto the bus, still tying ponytails and shoving snacks into backpacks as they went.

10 minutes later, there is a knock on the door. It is the camp bus! It dawned n my friend that she had packed her kids off with a stranger, to go who knows where? !My friend went into a complete panic, not knowing where (to whence?) she had sent her kids.

In the end all was OK. A scheduling error had sent two buses from the same camp to her house. But I learned from her, to always check before you put kids on the bus!

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Avatar for dublindee02
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 09-02-2005 - 11:00pm

Liam began kindy today, and I decided (probably when he was born, lol) that he would not be taking the bus until he really wanted it. We literally live a stone's throw from the school and it would take as long to walk to the bus stop as it would to get to school; so we are walking as of know. I'm sure I'll reconsider when we get the first snow storm.

Isn't it a far cry from Dublin bus or walkin' to "skool"?
Jasus, everything's different here.

Dee (Liam, pdd/bp/sid/odd)

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 09-02-2005 - 11:17pm

CA is different. They don't provide public bussing here for kids. There are busses in our town but you have to pay for it. Many towns don't have busses at all. There are 3 regular busses that go to my kids school but the vast majority of kids are dropped by car. It's fine by me. We live 1/2 mile away and I wouldn't let my kids take the big bus anyway.

The only ones they regularly provide bussing for free is special needs kids and then only if it isn't your neighborhood school. See if a child is going to the neighborhood school they figure you have to transport them there yourself if they weren't special needs so you have to if they are. But if a child has to go to a school cross town or in another district due to programming problems or needs, then the district provides bussing.

This year Cait is being bussed. She hasn't been bussed since I think 2nd grade when she was cross town at a magnet school. She is on the "short" bus too and that is ok. No regular bussing at all is provided for middle school and the place is NUTS in the morning with parent drop offs. So I am glad she is bussed.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Sat, 09-03-2005 - 8:34am

Ah sure, It's well I remember:
Walking barefoot two miles over the bog to the hedge school: Uphill both ways ;)

Or traipsing down the Harold's Cross Road in rush hour, in the days before emission regulations... Hmmm. At least I haver had to cope with the CIE, as it was then (I'm showing my age).

I'm not really complaining (OK I am, but you know what I mean!). I am very glad of the school district and the services we have here. If I was home, they'd all want to send her to the nuns and him to the Christian Brothers to "put some manners on them" Can you imagine? Eeek!

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Sat, 09-03-2005 - 8:37am

As she has to be to school so early, so am I! I don't know about you, but I am not at my most alert, patient or social at 6:30am!

-Paula

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 09-03-2005 - 10:35am

Neither and I and neither is she! LOL. She has been a bit of a witch getting on the bus a few times. Thought the driver was going to leave yesterday. She had a field trip and had extra towel and such in back pack. Well 1/2 way to the bus she decides her backpack "feels weird" and stopped dead in her tracks. Nothing was going to convince her to move. I grabbed the backpack and tossed it in the bus and walked away (I am NOT patient at 6:30am). I then told her if she doesn't get on the bus, I am not taking her and she would miss the field trip!

Renee

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Avatar for dublindee02
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 09-03-2005 - 10:41pm

Janey, you're so right. My cousin at home was dx with AS (finally) at age 12 thank's to a doc who had spent some time in the States. Of course he was mainsteamed as that's all they had for him, and ended up having to take a taxi to school due to the bullying at the CIE bus stop and had absolutely no services ever. No speech, OT, sensory ....ever. He is 18 now; finished the alternative leaving cert , (got 8 C grades-he could apply for the Gardai, lol), but he still can't balance a checkbook, wash himeself properly or basically function without living at home or sheltered care pretty much forever. I know if he had been here, or even England he's be a different boy altogether. I am sure that is why God sent me here, so my boys could have something that they just couldn't get in Ireland. I do love my "home" but I have finally realized, that celtic tiger or no, they really need to wake up a look long and hard at the children.

Btw, I had three hills to climb uphill, barefoot:) The Christian Brothers would have destroyed my Liam, no doubt in my mind!

Dee