preschoolers and school buses

As the most recent step in the saga of trying to get my three-year-old
into a good preschool for him, our school system is thinking of placing
him in a preschool that sounds great -- but there's a catch. He could
take a school bus there (hooray!) but the ride could be up to an hour
each way.

Do any of you have experience with preschoolers riding a school bus?
How'd it go?

Nikki...

Luke is 4.5yo and I have him ride a bus (well a public transit system - a
van ;-) to his preschool. He is on there for about 1/2 an hour sometimes a
tad longer. He doesn't mind it other then that they don't let him take his
coat off and he 'sweats'...which is very torturous to Luke ;-) Whenever
possible, he now wears a lighter jacket and I stuff his winter coat in his
backpack. I rode with him the first time. It was all similar age kid and
fine. You might ask to ride along to see what the atmosphere is like.
Buses can sometimes be kind of ugly I think.

Anonymama...

Heh -- especially a bus full of boys on their way to a preschool just
for kids with social and emotional delays...

dragonlady...

I was thinking more of the atmosphere on a middle school bus ... either
gender, just kids on hormones

Anonymama...

Oh, the only reason I was gender-specific there was that it turns out
this program is all boys. Not by design, it's just turned out that way.

That's a good idea, riding along the first time. Thanks!

Circe...

My daughter took the bus to her public developmental preschool from the time
she was about 3yo until she turned 5, and it went fine. (At one point in
time, she referred to the bus as her "space ship". Very cute!) I'm trying to
remember whether she spent an hour on the bus in either direction, and
though I don't think it was quite that long, it may have been fairly close
to it in at least one direction. It never seemed to bother her, though, and
she often just fell asleep in the bus on the trip back from school, so she
surely had no sense of how long it was on those occasions!

Anonymama...

Hey, that's a good point -- although he doesn't nap at home, he does

Barbara...

Sara -- I was trying to remember the situation with your son, and
that's what I recalled.

IMHO, no matter how well they treat your son on the bus, that's a long
trip for a very little boy, and esp for a little boy with social or
emotional delays. Is there any way to find out what *up to an hour*
means? If it were me, and if there were other alternatives (even
private ones), I'd fight this placement, and demand that they pay for a
closer one.

Anonymama...

Right now they don't know for sure how long it would take for him to get
there, but she said that some kids who live in our part of town have
rides of almost an hour -- but there's a chance that if he goes there
they'll add another bus, which would mean a much shorter ride. It's the
only program of its kind in the city, so it's centrally located (and
we're not).

HCN...

My oldest rode the little bus from the time he was 3 years old until he was
in 2nd grade. It worked quite well. At first he was in a car seat, and
then he had a harness.

The drivers are chosen and trained differently than the regular drivers.
Many were retired grandmothers, and really care about the kids.

Also, there was some flexibility with pick up and drop off locations. We
had him dropped off at his brother's preschool... which got out at the same
time the bus was going to be at the house. So this saved being in two
places at once.

Have you had your son privately tested in addition to any bd of educ
testing? If so, will the tester be willing to opine that this is
simply too long a ride for your son's emotional health?

enigma...

out of curiousity, how DO you get testing outside of the
school testing? after having Boo's IEP totally blown off last

Nikki...

I just called the pediatric neurodevelopment specialist (or some equally
long name ;-) at the children's specialty clinic and asked for one. If I
want to try and bill it to my insurance I need a referral from the primary
physician but if I just want to pay out of pocket, I don't need a referral.
It is finding the place to call that might be the hard work part. I already
knew who to call and who had the stellar reputation due to my job.

On the other hand you might we able to get a good, comprehensive speech
evaluation through a University Communications Department. Hunter has had
an excellent one from ours (and they don't charge if you can't pay) and I've
worked with other kids that have had very good results from them. At some
point I may take him back there for an Auditory Processing eval but that one
does cost money and so I'm waiting until all the other testing is complete
and we know more. The neurodevelopment eval should pick that up if it is
there and I'll save the University services for down the line when I need
more planning input etc....or CAPD isn't a factor and I'll have saved myself
$500 :-) Not all communications departments have CAPD specialists, it just
so happens this one does.

Sue...

We had private testing done for Kara with the children's psychologist that
specialized in austim, aspergers, SID, and other problems with children. She
was wonderful, but expensive and our insurance did cover some of it. I went

dragonlady...

Given the radical disagreements between several of us about any number
of things, your continued accusations of "group think" are really pretty
amusing.

-L....

Do we really need to rehash this again? There were a number of people
who said that they, too found Moo Group Think prevalent. Just because
YOU can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

dragonlady...

And just because you and a handful of other people think they see it any
time several of us disagree with them (or find them disagreeable)
doesn't mean it DOES exist.

enigma...

you know, just because cows are herd animals doesn't mean
they travel in lockstep or even think alike... i think you're
doing a disservice to cows this way ;)
lee

Heck, you and I even agree on several of the more contentious issues.

And finding myself in agreement with you doesn't make me run screaming
into a corner wondering where I've gone wrong . . .

-L....

I doubt many others feel the same way. There are a few people
here who seem to have a brain cell. A few.

Banty...

Is dragonlady one of these? NOW can she have the Bingo prize?

to our insurance's website and found doctors that specialized in children
and started calling to see which one would be the best fit for our needs.

year & never even hearing from the district on perhaps closing
the IEP or whatever they do to determine the kid no longer
need services, i asked the PA at Boo's 5 year physical about
getting an eval & referral to a pediatric neuropsych &was told
i had to have the school district do one, then contact the
ped's office if i wanted a secon opinion.

toto...

You probably have to pay for it (not sure if insurance would cover

enigma...

see, this is where the ped's office & i seem to have a
communication problem. i don't HAVE insurance, nor am i
eligible for Healthy Kids through the state... so i don't CARE
if insurance covers it or not. it's not an issue. i can't seem
to get that through to them though. i want the service, i will
pay for the service & i don't give a rat's ass about whether
or not insurance might pay if i had it. drives me nuts :p
if i can get the evals, find out exactly what we need, then i
can go back to the school district & tell them what they are
going to do for my son or what i'm going to do that they will
reimburse me for.
there's no question he's much better served at his private
school than he would be at thier school. they can't throw that
in my face anymore.

it though).

i don't want anythng to do with the school district. they're
incompetent. i just want my kid to be able to get speech
therapy & OT...
lee

toto...

I can't blame you if they are not competent. My experience is that
different school districts can have personnel who vary all over the

enigma...

yup, unbelievably so. i'd be somewhat willing to have another
district eval him, but i don't think that's something that can
be done. i really don't see why i can't just get the private
eval.
lee

place on this.

Anonymama...

No, we've just done public stuff so far. I agree that it's a long ride,
but the school sounds great other than that, so I think we'll go with it
(if I still like it after I visit it). If he does go to that school and
the ride is awful I guess we'll have to look into that, but for now I'm
trying to be hopeful.

MsLiz...

One of my main concerns would be if there were seatbelts. Taking into

Irrational Number...

We're just transitioning into the school system,
since Pillbug is still 2.5 years old, but they've
told us the buses have 5-point harnesses and it's
hand-to-hand delivery.

(I'm still going to drive him myself.)

account, 10 hours a week on a bus/van, without a seat belt, I might
consider driving him myself. I like the idea of riding the bus and
getting a feel. Call me overprotective; I think I'd want the two hours
to be spent with me, not alone on a bus (alone, as in no one other than
a busdriver whose attention needs to be on the road- and other kids)

toto...

Seat belts on school buses are not necessarily safer than no seat
belts. OTOH, driving will undoubtedly take a shorter time than going

MsLiz...

I'm not going to challenge you on this and it still would remain one of
my concerns.

OTOH, driving will undoubtedly take a shorter time than going

on the bus because the bus has lots of stops to pick up other
children. If the routes are done well, then he should be on the bus
longer one way and less the other way so it should not mean 2 hours
per day either. But that depends on how they set up the bus route.

MsLiz...

I used two hours from the OP; I have no clue about whether one way is
longer or shorter.
I have always enjoyed my time in the car with my kids. There aren't
the usual technological challenges that we have at home and they have
both opened up more in the car than just about anywhere else. It's
also why I like being the driver as they are/have gotten older. I get
to hear their conversations with friends and a better idea of what's
going on and who is who. I see being the driver as quality time.

But that depends on how they set up the bus route.

For most preschool buses, the children are not *alone* with the bus
driver. There is almost always an aide on such buses.

MsLiz...

I guess only the OP knows what that situation will be.

dragonlady...

My impression has been that the buses/vans they use for preschool and
special needs -- the ones that pick kids up at their homes -- DO have

Welches...

I think what I'd be thinking about is how is he usually on an hour long
trip. #1 is perfectly happy (and always has been) to sit still for an hour
on a journey, so it would be fine for her. #2 isn't, so I wouldn't like the
thought of her potentially wandering up and down the bus, being repeatedly
asked to sit down/sit still, possibly arriving at school all worked up
because the person in charge (I assume there would be 1+ adult in charge, I
don't know how school buses work) got cross with her, and needing to run
around to work off her energy.
Debbie

seat belts and other safety features that a car would have.

Circe...

In my experience, you are correct. The buses my daughter went to preschool
on had safety harnesses for all of the children. And some of them were
medium-sized school buses (though not the "large" ones used for older kids).

But then, I think all of the ones I've seen (I've had several friends
whose kids used them) were oversized vans with wheel chair lifts, NOT
the big yellow school buses.

Is it common for preschoolers to be on the big yellow buses?

toto...

I don't know how common it is. My kids never rode any school buses
because we did not live where they needed to do that. My ds did
ride a *van* type bus one year.

Nikki...

We have mini-buses. They look just like regular school buses only they are
about 1/4 of the size :-) Most have a lift as well.

fall asleep in the bike trailer and sometimes in the car. Thanks!

Sue...

Yes, my now 13-year-old took the bus for her developmental preschool when
she was 3-4 years old. It was awesome. They picked up and delivered her at
our front door. It wasn't an hour though, I think she was on there for 1/2
hour. In my experience, they take good care of the preschoolers, meaning
they personally put her on the bus and then met her at school to make sure
she got to her classroom. She takes the bus now to middle school and that

Anonymama...

Oh good. I was a little worried about that. Thanks!

even hasn't produced any problems. She is probably on the bus now for 1/2
hour.