A 3-year-old boy with special needs spent part of Friday morning alone on a Northfield school bus after his driver accidentally failed to drop him off at school.
The Northfield school district's bus company, Benjamin Bus, spent Monday morning investigating the incident in an effort to make sure nothing like it happens again, said company president John Benjamin.
The student is in a preschool program at Longfellow School and should have been dropped off between 8:45 and 9 a.m., said Superintendent Chris Richardson. Somehow, the driver completed her route without noticing the boy. She drove home between her morning and afternoon routes, leaving him on the parked bus until she returned from her break and found him, Benjamin said.
The driver took the boy to school about 11 a.m., as soon as she found him, Richardson said. School officials and the boy's parents were called, and he was checked out by a school nurse.
The student was properly dressed for the cold weather and didn't appear to be hurt, the superintendent said.
Bus drivers are trained to walk to the back of the bus before leaving to check for sleeping children, Benjamin said. As a result of Friday's mishap, they will now also radio in to dispatch to confirm that their buses are empty.
At Longfellow, aides also meet the preschool students at the bus to make sure they get inside safely. The child had not been riding the bus all week and didn't always arrive on time, the superintendent said, which may have been why teachers didn't know immediately that something was wrong.
The driver, who was "extremely distraught," did not work her usual route Friday or Monday, Benjamin said. She will take a two-week, unpaid leave of absence.
