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Has anyone fought the school board to have sibs & neighbor kids on lift bus w/ur son

So, I'm fighting my school board.

Dominick is starting middle school today, and wants to ride with his sibs

(he is a quadruplet) and neighbord pals.

Dom does need to be on a lift bus, (which the school corp. has 5 of).

So I'm asking that a lift bus be used as his "home neighborood bus"

As you can imagine I'm having less that an enthusiastic responce.

Sugestions??

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Groeger on August 18, 2011 at 3:49pm

Our school district allowed siblings at least to ride with my son but now all three are in different schools..Our handicap buses are not full sized school buses though that could accomodate the neighborhood bus stops..

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Permalink Reply by David on August 21, 2011 at 8:06pm

Cindy,

I hope you have more success than I. I admit I did not push that hard as my daughter can walk to school most days. But I did try to get her on my son's bus, but was denied each time.

-David

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Permalink Reply by Teri M. Renken on August 21, 2011 at 11:16pm

Very sorry to hear that you are going through this. I fought and lost that battle. :'(

Good luck to you in your endeavor. You sound like a good advocate for your son. I wish you the best.

Teri

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Permalink Reply by Cheri Gunvalson on September 1, 2011 at 10:04am

We live in a very small school district and there were just 2 kids in powerchairs so they had to buy per our request a full size bus. I told them it would be less expensive in the long run to have his sibling help him rather than a para. I would ask what will they do for class event such as field trips. Do they have a large lift bus for field trips? If so can you request that bus for his daily use? Your son needs to be in a least restrictive enviroment, that means staying with his class. One thing to consider is the school is always looking at saving money and a para is very expensive over time. Our son refused having a para as he "did not want a middle aged woman following him around school". That worked fine for elementary but when he was going into to 7th grade with 6 different teachers all in different classrooms I thought he needed a para. Again he refused as there was no way he was not going to have a "middle aged woman following him around." so each spring and fall we met with all his teachers and between the teachers and his friends he never had a para. For Jacob it was so important to be a regular kid and be as independant as possible. He went on all of the field trips and that full size bus with a lift was what they took for all band and knowlegebowl events all though HS. When the school went to sports play offs they took that bus so Jacob could go with. Don't get me wrong it was a fight to get the bus as they had not had to have a lift bus before. In the long run by making a few modifications in the classroom and the bus he was indepent and much less costly for the school district. Jacob is now 19 and in his second year of college living on campus with 2 other guys and has PCA assistance in the am and pm. A CNA comes in the am and he has trained 2 friends who now has a parttime job to take turns helping him at night and on the weekend. I think you can make a case of do they want to hire a para to ride the bus with him or can is sister help him? There is a very good resource to help with the legal end of this and undertanding federal special ed law...give PACER a call. One time I was at an IEP meeting and when I told them I had contacted PACER the school did a 360. Good Luck! Cheri