A Gilderland Central School District parent told the Board of Education on Sept. 30 that her 4-year-old kindergartner boarded the wrong bus on the third day of school and was missing for about an hour before being located at an unaffiliated daycare about five miles from the family home.

In public comment, Rachel Mormino said the child failed to get off at the family stop; the family learned he was missing when he did not exit the bus in front of their house. Mormino described multiple breakdowns in dismissal procedures: the teacher did not confirm the child was handed to an adult on the bus; the bus driver did not take or consult an on-board attendance list; radio checks of bus drivers did not locate the child; and school staff initially reported the child was not on the bus after checking cameras. Mormino said the child was eventually found at a daycare and was sitting with the daycare’s program director and a police officer when the family arrived.

The district responded during the meeting, saying it has already begun changes to ensure consistency across elementary dismissals. District staff said buses will be relabeled with numbers and symbols to help younger students identify the correct bus run; parents will be offered labels or tags showing a child’s bus number and first name for visual checks; district staff and bus personnel have received retraining on dismissal procedures; and the transportation center will enforce a protocol that requires drivers to stop and make a safe check when a bus is identified in a missing-child radio call. The district representative said the school will implement a checklist for dismissal as an immediate measure and that transportation staff will “shut down until that child is found” when a radio call identifies a specific bus.

Mormino said the family received apologies from the principal and the superintendent and offered additional suggestions, including tagging children with bus numbers, having staff check students on and off buses, and adding more staff at dismissal. The district representative acknowledged the family’s suggestions and said the checklist is one of several steps being implemented.

The parent emphasized the risk to a young child who could get off at a random stop or be picked up by a stranger, and urged the district to adopt procedures across all elementary schools to prevent a recurrence.

District officials did not provide additional details about the bus driver’s actions, any personnel findings or disciplinary steps during the public meeting, nor did they present a timeline for adopting or auditing the new procedures.

The incident and the district’s announced changes were raised during the public-comment portion of the meeting and were not the subject of a board vote that evening.

The board’s public-comment policy was read at the meeting noting the board does not typically engage in dialogue during public comment, though the district did respond to this speaker’s concerns at the meeting.