Six nonverbal students with special needs were unaccounted for for more than four hours after their school bus traveled to multiple incorrect schools, according to an investigation by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District (SCI).

According to a report released by SCI on Oct. 16, the students, ages 6 to 8, were supposed to be dropped off at P.S. 289, also known as the “Brower School,” in Crown Heights between 8:20 and 9 a.m. on Dec. 16, 2025, but did not arrive until 1:25 p.m., prompting school officials to contact the DOE’s Office of Pupil Transportation (OPT) and the NYPD.

A concerned parent who had placed AirTags in her two children’s backpacks alerted SCI after noticing that the bus was traveling to different locations in Brooklyn instead of taking her children to school. School officials repeatedly tried to contact the bus company, Consolidated Bus Transit Inc., a family-run school bus and commuter transportation provider based in Brooklyn and a New York City Department of Education (DOE) school bus vendor. They eventually received a callback from the dispatcher at 11:45 a.m. The dispatcher informed them that the bus was “lost” but would arrive within the next 15 minutes.

However, the bus did not arrive at P.S. 289 until approximately 1:25 p.m. When school personnel entered the bus, they noticed that one student was lying flat on a seat, soaking wet after urinating on herself. She had also removed her urine-soaked diaper and leggings.

According to GPS tracking data that SCI obtained from the DOE’s Office of Pupil Transportation, the bus was still at one student’s residential address as late as 10:59 a.m., despite the driver’s statement that all students had been picked up by 10 a.m.

Bus matron Germina Thomas told investigators that some of the nonverbal students became agitated during the prolonged bus ride, while others slept through the incident. She also acknowledged that she did not speak to bus driver Eric Chery during the ordeal or attempt to contact the school or bus depot.

SCI Commissioner Anastasia Coleman, whose agency investigates fraud, corruption and misconduct by DOE officials, employees, contractors and vendors, described the incident, in which the whereabouts of six nonverbal children remained unknown for hours, as “highly disturbing.”

“These particularly vulnerable students rely on the adults entrusted with their care to ensure their safety," Coleman said in a statement. "Every child, including those with special needs, deserves safe, reliable, and timely transportation to school, and SCI will continue investigating failures that put student safety at risk."

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Council Members Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) and Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) also weighed in on the incident, calling for accountability.

Reynoso, whose son is autistic, expressed outrage over the bus driver’s and matron’s failure to properly care for the six students for hours. “Every morning, families of students with special needs trust that bus staff will provide the best level of care possible when sending their children to school. This incident completely betrays that trust, and the only way to begin to make amends is by ensuring that these two individuals are never allowed to care for DOE students again," Reynoso said. "I am keeping these students and their families in my thoughts, and I thank SCI for bringing these facts to light."

Brewer, a former chair of the City Council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigations, said the failure to get students to school on time was unacceptable and needed to be addressed. “As the former Chair of the Committee on Oversight and Investigations, I held hearings on this issue in November 2022, issued reports, and requested audits. At the time, 350 school buses experienced delays daily, and the problem continues," Brewer noted. "SCI has highlighted one important case affecting several students, their families, and their schools, but this is not an isolated situation."

“It’s disturbing and unacceptable that students with special needs were delivered to school 4 hours late by a bus system that too often doesn’t deserve their parents’ trust. We need to hold school bus operators accountable and provide safe, timely, and reliable service to the 150,000 New York City public school students who rely on them, particularly our most vulnerable students,” Restler said.

SCI recommended that both Chery and Thomas be permanently barred from supervising DOE students or working with any DOE vendors or the DOE. Consolidated Bus Transit Inc. did not immediately respond to requests for comment. About the Author Conversations Profile All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines . Schneps Media does not endorse the views shared by readers in our comment sections.