A valley mother is furious after she says the Clark County School District lost track of her son on his way home from school.
Three-year-old Christiano has cerebral palsy and gets picked up and dropped off at his home. But one day, his mom Jessica says things did not go as planned. His bus was already 15 minutes late.
"I called to find out where he was, I got put on hold for about ten minutes," said Christiano's mom Jessica Ralph.
"And they said, 'sorry we can't get a hold of the bus driver,' which immediately raised a red flag and it scared me that they couldn't find my child."
Ralph said when the bus finally showed up, the driver told her he had not spoken to anyone from the district.
Finally the person on the phone responded, saying Christiano was on his way home.
"He was standing right next to me, I already had him, the bus driver hadn't spoken to anybody," Ralph said, "so there was a miscommunication and obviously the operator was trying to cover up whatever he was trying to do."
Jessica feels they lied to her about where her child was.
Action News waited for the bus with Ralph on Thursday, and it was just a couple minutes late. But she said it's usually even later, and the issues she has had are not a one-time problem.
"We always have issues with transportation," said Ralph. "The bus being late or not coming when it's supposed to, different bus drivers, they always have some excuse for why."
Because of Christiano's developmental delays, he would have no way of explaining the situation to his mom or asking for help.
"It's completely frustrating when you're supposed to trust the school district," said Ralph.
She said she tried many times to get someone to explain why this happened. No one responded until she got on the CCSD Facebook page and told them she would be contacting us.
Shortly thereafter, they reached out to Ralph and told her they were launching an investigation.
She said they also told her the bus driver had been spoken to and they recommended some kind of discipline, but could not give more details.
Action News reached out to the Clark County School District, and they told us they could not talk about this specific case.
They did send us the following statement:
"CCSD's bus drivers service 1,550 routes each day and make an additional 9,000 special needs stops that require door-to-door service.
"Due to staffing issues, approximately 10 percent of bus routes each day are covered by substitute drivers or drivers taking on additional stops, which can result in late or delayed service.
However, on average, more than 90,000 students are receiving timely service on a daily basis.
"If parents have concerns about student bus transportation, we encourage them to contact the CCSD Transportation Department at 702-799-8100 so that their concern can be investigated.
"Our Transportation Department is committed to providing safe and efficient bus service to all eligible students.
"CCSD has an additional process in place for parents who feel their concerns aren't being addressed. They can contact our Constituent Services office at 702-799-1016."
