‘No one cares’: Father of special needs students frustrated by school bus problems

By Juli McDonald

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    BOSTON (WBZ) — A West Roxbury dad is defeated. Just so tired of the headaches and the hounding – trying to get his special needs sons safely to school.

“It doesn’t matter who you call. Nothing gets done. No one cares,” Barry Wiener said. “All I want – what most normal people want – the best for their children.”

Barry isn’t even asking for the best ride – but a ride. A wheelchair bus that shows up on time to bring Andy and Dan to and from Perkins School for the Blind.

“I’m dragging my kids out of bed at 5:40 in the morning to get ready for the bus at 7 o’clock. I ended up calling back at 7:10. There was no bus or driver. Again,” he said, frustrated. It was the third issue just this week.

Barry has to wait on hold for the transportation line, which can take a while. The transportation line calls the bus company. The school is private; the boys are on Boston IEPs. It’s a giant game of telephone. When there’s no ride, it isn’t clearly and quickly communicated.

“He was at school. He’s in a diaper. He’s drenched in urine because there’s no bus. I have no knowledge of no bus,” Barry said of son Andy, who is nonverbal and uses a wheelchair.

In a statement to WBZ, Boston Public Schools wrote:

“We hear the frustration of this family and want to do all that we can to remedy this situation and improve our communication with them. BPS Transportation has been experiencing ongoing driver shortage issues throughout the 2021-22 school year. These shortages are a result of the ongoing national bus driver shortage, high staff absence rates due to the impact of COVID-19, and daily attendance challenges. Our system currently has more than 30 open bus driver positions. As a result, a relatively small number of trips each day this year have been without a driver due to the driver shortage. We are working with urgency to fill driver vacancies so that no families have to navigate these issues.”

Barry has been begging for change for years. But he’d do anything for all three of his boys.

“That’s what I live for, basically,” he said. “It’s what I live and breathe for. That’s why I’m here on the planet to take care of them and watch over them.”

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