Nonverbal Kids Lost on Brooklyn School Bus 4+ Hours

A city investigation found a bus carrying six nonverbal autistic children, ages 6 to 8, wandered Brooklyn for more than four hours while parents tracked it with AirTags. One child arrived lying in urine.

For more than four hours, six nonverbal autistic children were somewhere in Brooklyn on a yellow school bus, and nobody responsible for them knew where. Their parents tracked the bus's winding route using AirTags tucked in their kids' backpacks.

That's the finding of a city investigation released Thursday, Oct. 15, into an incident from last December. It has reignited anger over New York City's troubled school bus system.

Key takeaways

On Dec. 16, 2025, a bus carrying six nonverbal autistic students, ages 6 to 8, was due at P.S. 289 in Crown Heights before 9 a.m. It arrived at 1:25 p.m.
When it arrived, one child was lying in a pool of urine, according to the report.
The substitute driver got lost, the bus's GPS didn't work, and the bus attendant never contacted the school.
The driver and attendant, both employed by Consolidated Bus Transit, have been on leave and are barred from the company's buses. The watchdog says they should never supervise city schoolchildren again.

A yellow school bus on a street in Manhattan, New York City — A New York City school bus. Photo: Jakub Hałun/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

What Went Wrong

The report comes from the Special Commissioner of Investigation, the watchdog for city public schools. It describes a cascade of failures, Gothamist reported:

The driver and attendant were both fill-ins temporarily assigned to the route.
The bus's GPS was "inoperable."
The driver said he stopped at two wrong addresses before the bus company called with the right address for the school.
The attendant, who had nearly 20 years of experience, made no effort to contact the school or the driver, CBS New York reported.

GPS data and a tracker placed on two of the children by their mother showed the driver was still at one student's home as late as 10:59 a.m., even though he said everyone had been picked up by 10 a.m., PIX11 reported. While the bus was missing, worried school staff filed a police report.

Dec. 16, 2025: the missing morning

Before 9 a.m.Scheduled arrivalThe six students are due at P.S. 289 in Crown Heights.
10 a.m.School calls the bus companyStaff can't locate the bus. As the search drags on, they file a police report.
10:59 a.m.Still picking upGPS places the driver at a student's home.
Shortly before noon"Less than 15 minutes away"A dispatcher says the driver is lost but close. The bus arrives nearly two hours later.
1:25 p.m.Bus finally arrivesMore than four hours late. One child is found lying in urine.

"Highly Disturbing"

"It is highly disturbing that six nonverbal children were left on a school bus for hours while their whereabouts remained unknown to school officials," Special Commissioner Anastasia Coleman said. "These particularly vulnerable students rely on the adults entrusted with their care to ensure their safety."

Because the children are nonverbal, they couldn't tell anyone what happened during those hours.

In a statement, Consolidated Bus Transit said both employees have been on leave since the incident and aren't allowed on any of its buses or around students, ABC7 reported.

A yellow school bus on Broadway in New York City — About 155,000 New York City students rely on yellow school buses. Photo: Jannis Lucas/Unsplash

A System Under Strain

This isn't a one-off, parents say. New York runs the largest school bus system in the country.

NYC's yellow bus system

~155,000Students who ride yellow buses
About halfRiders with disabilities
45 yearsAge of the core bus contracts
4+ hoursHow long the Brooklyn bus was missing

Source: Gothamist

Parents have long complained about delays, winding routes, broken GPS and unresponsive call centers. Advocates say real fixes need legislation in Albany so the city can rebid its decades-old contracts with stricter vendor rules. At the start of this school year, thousands of students who needed buses didn't have them, a problem the Education Department blamed on a driver shortage.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said his administration is working on both the immediate and long-term problems: "We are doing everything we can to ensure that every single student is able to get to school."

FAQ

What happened on the Brooklyn school bus?

On Dec. 16, 2025, a bus carrying six nonverbal autistic students to P.S. 289 in Crown Heights got lost and arrived more than four hours late, at 1:25 p.m. School officials couldn't locate it in the meantime.

Who operated the bus?

Consolidated Bus Transit, one of the city's contracted school bus vendors.

What happened to the driver and attendant?

Both were placed on leave and barred from the company's buses. The Special Commissioner of Investigation recommended they never work with Education Department students or vendors again.

Why is this news now?

The Special Commissioner of Investigation published its report on Oct. 15, 2026, nearly 10 months after the incident.