Special Ed Bus

After several months of back and forth, my son finally got transportation from home to school. Last week the transportation director e-mailed me and called several times saying I should be hearing from the bus depot. The bus driver finally called last night and said she'd be here at 8:35 this morning. Happened to look outside at 8:25 and she was there. So, we scramble for shoes and sweatshirt and go check out the bus. The driver had installed a seat for DS since the seats in front of him were removed for wheelchairs. Previously, he was on a full size school bus and I was comfortable with compartmentalization.

Well, hearing stories from here and knowing DS has never ridden in a seat I haven't purchased, I checked the expiration date. It was something in 06. I know some seats have more than a 6 year expiration, but I wasn't okay with the seat at all. I asked the driver if I could provide one of our seats. She said sure so I ran into the garage and grabbed the Maestro that is one of our backups and the lightest one we have. She installed it and DS climbed back in.

I realized after googling that not only was the seat expired, it was a Cosco HBB that topped out at 40 lbs.

Thank you all for educating me so I was confident enough to advocate for my child and realize the situation was going to be unsafe.

That is great that you knew to check the seat. Way to go Mom!

But I would also contact Transportation and get it in writing (IEP/504/etc) that the school needs to provide an appropriate, unexpired seat.

Do you know if they will remove his seat during the day? You need to make sure they don't lose your seat and that they understand it needs to be in the bus after school.

I agree- another thing to look out for is whether he'll ever come back on a different bus than the one he went on in the morning, and what the plan is for that seat-wise. And she might know how to install his seat, but will every driver? Etc. Sounds like you may need to get the IEP and then get the district to hound the transportation dept. for you since they don't seem very good at communication.

Is he on a smaller bus now? The should be able to use a STAR or Huggy for him.

And while I am on that subject can someone remind me what that tops out at weightwise. DS is about 38 pounds. Some of the buses have the star brand lap shoulder belts but others are just lap belts and that will not be happening.

4boysmom said:

Is he on a smaller bus now? The should be able to use a STAR or Huggy for him.

And while I am on that subject can someone remind me what that tops out at weightwise. DS is about 38 pounds. Some of the buses have the star brand lap shoulder belts but others are just lap belts and that will not be happening.

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STAR 65 lb depending on the style could even be a higher weight.

They do install and uninstall the seat every time. Its his assigned seat and has his name on it. Not that they couldn't grab the wrong seat, but fortunately, its the same driver in the morning and the afternoon.

I can't figure out what the procurement process is for seats. Another boy was in a Britax Laptop. I'm not sure if there are any that aren't expired. I will try and find out who I can contact about the seats.

It is a small bus, but the only restraints on the bus are lap belts. I looked closer today and there are only two bench seats and then room for wheelchairs.

No, there are no more unexpired Laptops.