Mom: School bus often late to pick up my kids

HENRICO, VA (WWBT) - A Henrico mother says the school bus has been frequently late to pick up her children, often making her late for work.

Shaneka Taylor has a seven and 10-year-old in second and fourth grade at Arthur Ashe Middle School.

They wait for the bus a few feet from their home on the corner of North Laburnum Avenue. Taylor watches them from the window until the bus pulls up.

She says the bus has been late twice this week to pick up her children.

“The bus is constantly late,” Taylor said. “When they go past the building, I know they are getting ready to get on the bus so I see them start to walk past and a bus go past but it wasn’t their bus.”

Taylor says twice this week the school bus was almost 30 minutes late picking up her kids. She said it happened frequently last school year too.

“It’s cold outside,” Taylor said. "That’s too long for them to be waiting an extra 15 to 20 minutes for the bus to get here."

Taylor says when the bus is late, it often makes her late for work.

She also is frustrated and says the transportation department doesn’t notify her when the bus is going to be late.

We reached out to the Henrico County School District who acknowledged that Taylor’s children’s bus was late twice this week. They say it was due to mechanical issues.

The district said, “It’s correct that twice this week this bus experienced mechanical issues, and our driver did the right thing each time by alerting our Transportation office so additional drivers and buses could respond to complete the routes. Unfortunately, yes, this resulted in late arrivals on two occasions. We hope it’s understandable that safety was our first priority. A replacement bus has already been assigned to the route and we foresee no delays with on-time pickup on Monday morning. GPS tracking of this route shows that it has been very timely with the exception of the mechanical issues that occurred this week.”

If you have an issue with transportation or your child’s bus and bus route you can contact the supervisor in your transportation zone.

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