Yeah, so school lost my child today

Holy Sh!t! DC goes to aftercare. I CALLED THE SCHOOL TODAY since it is a new year to confirm he is on the list for aftercare, blah blah blah. They confirmed, even confirmed the rest of the days he goes to aftercare.

About an hour later, I get a call at work...."Hi Mrs XXXX, we dont know where your son is. We think he was on the line for aftercare, but he isnt there."

Holy SH!T are you FLUCKING kidding me. I LOST my mind at work. I was like "what do you mean you dont flucking know where my son is!!" The whole office got really quiet (like 200 people)....as I launched into a very loud expletive laced tirade.

She continues...."we think there was an oversight and he may have been put on the bus. We are on the phone with the transportation company right now to see if he is on the bus"

I was like, "so you dont even know if he is IN the school or if he is ON the bus. Its not a flucking oversight, an oversight is forgetting you had a meeting or losing an important document, losing my child is not just an flucking oversight"........ "We are trying to find out now."

My district has a policy of ONLY children in K have to have someone at the stop in order for children to be let off the bus. My DC is older. I was losing my mind on this person. We live on a VERY main, highly traveled road. I just kept picturing him let off the bus and is now sitting out front on our very main road with hundreds of people just driving by.

"His teacher is on the way to your house now" (we only live 3-4 houses away from the school.)
Teacher gets to our house as the bus is honking....THANK GOD, despite the school policy of only keeping kids in K on the bus, the driver had the common sense to not let him off without an adult despite the policy bc of the busy road. The teacher pulled up at the same time as the bus, who was honking to see if someone was home. She told him to bring him back to the school.

Holy sh!t....if that driver just followed policy, he wouldve just been let off on a very main and busy road.

Apparently, somehow, his name was manually crossed off one of the checkpoint lists for aftercare and he was pulled off the line and put on the bus. No one was sure though and they didnt know where he was. The teacher was like, I put him on the line. When aftercare took attendance is when they realized he wasnt there and raised the question.

All I heard was "we dont know where your son is. He was on the line for aftercare but isnt there" I was thinking he wandered off, someone took him......jesus flucking christ.

I left work and went straight to speak to the principal, who was kind of an ass about it. But thats a whole other story I dont feel like getting into bc its too long and pisses me off.

I did apologize to the office worker who called bc it wasnt her fault, she just had the unfortuante job of being the one who had to call me.

I cannot even.

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

I am glad he is safe. My heart was in my mouth reading your story. Hugs to you. I am glad his teacher went to go get him from your house. That was nice of her to help you out.

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

How scary! You had every right to freak out! Schools HAVE to change that policy. Is personally thank that bus driver and teacher for avoiding something worse!

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

Something similar happened to my son in k last year. Except the school didn't notice. Despite the policy the bus driver let my son off the bus and during a meeting my neifhbor texted me that she had him, thinking we made the mistake. The teacher blamed it on my son. The principal was kinda an ass about it too. Then yesterday was the first day of afterschool. He told me he almost missed his bus his teacher went to put him in afterschool but he should have gone on the bus. His teacher corrected it before the busses left. These teachers should really triple check to make sure everything is right. Especially on the first day. I have never lost a kid and I have been teaching for almost 15 years.

Yeah, so school lost my child today

I would have lost my sht. Thank Gd he's ok.

Just curious, if you are only 3-4 houses away from school why was he put in a bus to begin with? For us that close they are "walkers"

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

wow how scary for you!! Thank Goodness the caught it on time!
On the 1st day of school something similar happened to a little boy in my complex. He should have been in aftercare bus but instead got on reg bus and he was dropped off at the end of our complex (off a busy main road) walked home and waited for his mom to get home at 6pm!!! It was his first day of K! I heard mom went ballistic on the bus driver and school. The school blamed transportation.

Yeah, so school lost my child today

My boss did this to me once.

The child's mom called and said she would not be home to take her K son off the bus, and if we could keep him for aftercare. Well my boss took the message but never told me, who puts the children on the bus after school.

Well I sent this kid home on the bus. Which, our bus company rule is if there is no one to pick the child up at the house, they bring the child back to school. We still had to call the company and tell them to turn around, but she made me make the phone call to the mom and I felt horrible. Luckily, the mom was mostly understanding and her child was safe back with us within a few minutes.

Yeah, so school lost my child today

Omg I would be livid! Thank gd he is ok!!! This is why I am so paranoid about them going to school and taking a bus. DH thinks I'm crazy and these things don't happen.

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

Message edited 9/6/2014 9:32:09 AM.

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

Yeah, so school lost my child today

The scary thing is you aren't the first person who I heard this happen to yesterday. So scary!! I'm glad your son is home and safe now, but wow, what a horrible thing to put you through.

Yeah, so school lost my child today

The schools really need to make sure they have all their ducks in a row this first few days. What an awful story. So glad the teacher realized the mistake and followed the bus!

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

Happened in our district last year.
Except, it was a kid who didn't take the bus put on a bus.
Administrator of school was fired.

I'm so glad your kid is ok. That's a really scary story.

Yeah, so school lost my child today

Ridiculous, and sadly it happens every single year. Thank god your child is okay.

My son (with special needs) was put on a bus, wasn't supposed to be, let off, and was wandering the neighborhood several years ago. I was parked in front of his school waiting for him to come out, like I did each Tuesday. Fortunately a teacher happened to be driving by, saw him, called the school, they called me, I raced home. Nightmare!

I don't trust the bus, my son now rides a mini, and I drive my daughter.

Message edited 9/6/2014 1:50:13 PM.

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

Im actually in tears reading this!!! My god how terrifying. I cant even imagine.praise God hes okay

Yeah, so school lost my child today

OMG, PUT THIS IN WRITING to the superintendents office, ask them for their formal policy on securing the safety of your child. Ask them what steps they have put in place to ensure the safety of your child going forward. This was not an "oops" moment they need to take this seriously (principal included) ETA send it return receipt requested so they know you are looking for accountability and expecting a response.

Message edited 9/6/2014 9:14:02 PM.

Yeah, so school lost my child today

WOW! That's horrible. All children in our school are color coded Tagged for like 2months or the tag falls off. Up to I think 3rd grade. Each tag is a color code for Bus, walk, Car, Aftercare. Other than the first day mix up I had not understanding the codes, we've been pretty impressed with their handling of the kids. Even the mix up they figured out in 15mins. They thought she was a car pick up, she was not (I said she'd get home in our car meaning aftercare pick up and not a bus, I was wrong). She sat out there and 15mins in they called us to to be sure we were coming because it seemed.. 'wrong', and it was. Even that I was fairly ticked off about!

But what you went through.. man... I'd lose my mind! I can't even imagine! So very sorry you had to experience this!

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

Wow!!! So sorry you had to go through that!!

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

OMG!! I am so sorry you went through that. I can't imagine.

I agree with the other posters who said not to drop the issue with the school to see what they will do to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Yeah, so school lost my child today

OMG!! I can only imagine how terrified you must have been. What's scary is how many stories like this I have already heard about, apparently this is a common thing?! I'm so sorry you went through that, I'm so glad your son is ok.

Yeah, so school lost my child today

OMG. I can't. I'm so glad your son is ok. Stories like this make me want my 16month old to stay a baby FOREVER!

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

It was horrible. It would have been one thing if the call was, "hey, your child was accidentally put on the bus, we notified the bus driver and he is bringing him back" but they had NO IDEA where he was. It was the fact he was put on the aftercare line, somehow was removed from it and no one knew where he was until aftercare took attendance, thats when they were then calling the transportation dept to see IF he was on the bus. They had no idea what happened to him in between being put on the line for aftercare and realized then he wasnt there.

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

As a first grade teacher, my whole first day is spent going over dismissal. I request a note from parents stating child's dismissal, make a chart with students and then call if there seems to be any sort of discrepancies. For example, last week a students said he was on bus X when I saw bus Y. His mom didn't write a note. I was on my way to call his mom when I checked the master list. Turns out there are 2 students with the same EXACT name. I caught it but like I said, I was going to call the parents anyhow. Parents should always write a note on the first day. If there is still a problem on the schools part, then that's pure negligence.

Yeah, so school lost my child today

This happens way more often that it should. Glad he's okay!!

Re: Yeah, so school lost my child today

Posted by InShock

This happens way more often that it should. Glad he's okay!!