SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane parents said Spokane Public Schools staff lost track of their son two different times. The father said he thought this issue was addressed the first time it happened last school year.
But it happened again this week.
They've asked to remain anonymous.
But they said, at one point last year, the 6-year-old boy was supposed to wait outside of the SPS Libby Center for his parents to pick him up from the Spanish immersion program. But that's not what happened.
"At the end of the program, our son didn't come out," the Spokane father said. "The coach even acknowledged he expected our son to be there. At that point, we didn't know where he was."
He was tracked down at Hutton Elementary, his typical drop-off location.
"At that point he had been alone on the side of the road for about 45 minutes," his father said.
The boy's parents met with the principal and created a plan to make sure this wouldn't happen again. Things went smoothly until this school year.
The father said a teacher put his son on the wrong bus. He said the bus driver didn't notice until the end of his route.
"He was scared, he said he was sad," the father said. "And he didn't end up on his express bus or the bus that would take him to his home drop off at Hutton Elementary school."
The boy's teacher explained several staff members are on site walking students to their assigned buses. But said sometimes the boy wanders away to talk with friends.
SPS Spokesman Brian Coddington said the mix-up this school year is a result of paperwork error.
"The families involved in this Spanish immersion program have the option to decide where their student rides to and from, that was done in this case," Coddington said. "The records we have in this case were for Hutton as a drop off point. There was a subsequent enrollment in an express program in a different location and that's where the discrepancy occurred."
He adds the district has since retrained all staff to ensure students are not mistakenly put on the wrong bus.