A mother in Kentucky wants her daughter to be picked up by what the mother is calling a “short bus”. Her daughter has autism, and is prone to seizures when she becomes overstimulated. The school district has offered a large bus with very few students on it, instead. The mother is now fighting with the school about transportation.
Angela Southern Roark is a single parent of a ten year old daughter. Neveah is autistic. She can experience epileptic seizures if she becomes overstimulated. Ms. Roark has asked the Fayette County Public Schools, the school system her daughter attends, to provide some specific accommodations in order to prevent Neveah from having a seizure while she is on the school bus.
The mother would like the school to send out, in her words, a “short bus”. Often, this term is used in a derogatory manner, as a way of making fun of the children who have special needs and who frequently are transported to and from school in these smaller busses. In this case, Ms. Roark is well aware of how a “short bus” could help her daughter.
She wants the bus to have a person on board who is there for the purpose of monitoring Neveah while she rides the bus to or from school. Ms. Roark believes that the “short bus” will provide the quiet atmosphere that her daughter needs. She wants the school to send the little bus to pick up Neveah at the door of the apartment complex that she lives in.
The school that Neveah attends has offered to pick up Neveah at her apartment complex, but not at her door. The school has decided to send a large school bus to transport Neveah to and from school, instead of a short one. The large bus cannot navigate to the door of Ms. Roark’s apartment complex. Instead, Neveah will need to be picked up “about five bus lengths away from her apartment”, at the street in front of the complex.
The school has made some accommodations. The bus that Neveah would ride would have a reduced number of students on it. There would be between 21 and 26 kids on board in the morning, and somewhere between 11 and 17 after school. There will be a monitor on the bus. Neveah would be able to sit separately from the other children, in order to have the quiet atmosphere that she needs.
The school says that solution meets the requirements of Neveah’s IEP. It also matches what Dr. Chris Wesellkamper of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, wrote in a letter. He is Neveah’s doctor. He said Neveah needs “transportation with minimal students on the bus to better help minimize behavioral problems”.
Neveah’s mother has refused this solution. She feels that this bussing situation, where Neveah sits separately from the other kids, would make her the target of bulling. She also doesn’t like the idea of Neveah getting on or off the school bus by a busy street. Instead of using the large bus, Ms. Roark has been driving Neveah to school herself, (except for some days when she cannot afford the gas). She is considering taking her daughter out of the school, and moving to another school district.
Image by Vards Uzvards on Flickr