A Harford County mother whose son was missing for 40 minutes last week is questioning the public school transportation policy that allows bus drivers to "exercise best judgment" when leaving even their youngest charges at stops without a parent or guardian.
Megan Brown said she was frantically searching for her 4-year-old son Jan. 3 after the school bus driver arrived earlier than usual and left the child alone at the family's driveway, which is a third of a mile from their rural home in Darlington.
Luke Brown, a preschooler at Dublin Elementary, apparently was so confused when his mother was not at the stop that he started walking back to the school. Minutes later, his mother arrived at the stop, still before the usual time, and waited.
About 11:50 a.m., 15 minutes after she typically picks up her son, Brown called the school from her car to find out where her son was and was told the preschool had dismissed early. That meant the bus had arrived early, too.
"At that point, I was frantic," Brown said. "Nobody knew where my son was. The driver let my son off alone and drove away."
As she drove along Castleton Road, a winding country byway where cars often speed, she found Luke's backpack and became even more anxious. She finally stopped a half-mile from her house at a neighbor's along the bus route. She found Luke had just arrived there and the resident was trying to contact her. He told his mother that he had run back to that driveway after a stranger offered him a ride.
"All he would say is that he didn't know why the bus driver left him," Brown said.
Harford County transports about 38,000 students daily, about 400 of whom are preschoolers like Luke, school officials said. Timing for the stops can fluctuate, depending on many factors, but drivers carry cell phones for emergencies, officials said.
"Obviously, this is an unfortunate situation," said Teresa D. Kranefeld, schools spokeswoman. "We are looking into the situation to see if there was a breakdown in policy and where. Picking the child up at a bus stop is the responsibility of the parent. But there is no policy, even for pre-K, that states a parent has to be at the stop" in order for the driver to drop off a child.
Brown said she wants to alert all parents to a "flawed policy."
"I am going to pursue this as far as I can," she said. "I feel the school system patronized me and minimized the dangers to my son."
Even more puzzling, she said, was that the driver took the child who disembarks immediately before Luke back to school rather than leave her alone.
"You take one child back to school and not another," she said. "It makes no sense. This is best judgment?"
In the meantime, she said, she is picking her son up at school dismissal every day.