By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 10/17/2026
Category: Disability Access / Public Safety / Education Accountability
NEW YORK CITY, NY –
Six nonverbal children between 6 and 8 years old spent more than four hours on a school bus while parents and school staff struggled to determine where they were, according to findings from New York City’s school-system watchdog.
The children were supposed to arrive at P.S. 289 in Crown Heights between 8:20 and 9 a.m. on December 16, 2025. The bus did not reach the school until about 1:25 p.m.
The students could not call for help or explain what was happening. Their families and educators were left trying to track a bus that should have completed a routine morning route.
The Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District found that the substitute driver went to two incorrect addresses before receiving the correct location for P.S. 289. School officials began trying to locate the children after the bus failed to arrive.
A dispatcher reportedly told the school at about 11:45 a.m. that the driver was lost and would arrive within 15 minutes. The bus remained missing from the school for roughly another hour and forty minutes.
A mother had placed tracking devices inside two of her children’s backpacks and watched their movement across Brooklyn. The school also contacted the Department of Education and filed a police report, according to published accounts of the investigation.
When the bus finally arrived, one child had urinated on herself. Reports said she was found on a seat wet, with her diaper removed. The condition of that child turns a transportation delay into a basic-care and dignity failure.
The bus was operated by Consolidated Bus Transit. The company said the driver and matron had been placed on leave after the incident and were barred from its buses and from interacting with students. Investigators recommended that neither worker supervise New York City students again.
The company’s response does not resolve the system failure. A dispatcher reportedly said the live GPS tracker was not working, while CBS New York reported that investigators found the tracking system was functioning. Officials must explain whether the bus could have been located, who had access to its position, and why that information did not reach the school immediately.
The investigation also raises questions about route preparation, substitute-driver training, communication requirements, emergency escalation, and contractor oversight. A bus carrying children with significant communication needs should never be allowed to disappear inside the city’s transportation system for hours.
Gothamist reported that roughly 155,000 New York City students rely on yellow buses and that about half are students with disabilities. Those numbers make this more than an isolated personnel matter. The city depends on private contractors, dispatch systems, school staff, and GPS technology to work together every morning.
Because the children are nonverbal, investigators cannot depend on them to reconstruct the trip. GPS records, call logs, dispatch recordings, camera footage, route records, and witness interviews become even more important. The burden is on adults and agencies to document what happened.
No report reviewed for this article indicates that the children suffered a reported physical injury beyond the condition described when they arrived. That does not erase the risk, distress, or loss of dignity they experienced.
Accountability requires more than barring two workers. The Department of Education should explain what monitoring failed, how quickly schools must escalate a missing-bus report, whether contractors face financial consequences, and what protections now prevent another group of children from becoming unlocatable.
Sources
Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District
Leave a Reply