Two Students Left on School Buses in One Year Prompts Investigation

June 19, 2026

Two incidents in which young students were left unattended on school buses this school year have prompted scrutiny of transportation practices in Oxnard, California’s Rio School District and intensified a dispute between district officials and the union representing bus drivers, reported vcstar news.

According to the news report, the incidents occurred months apart but shared a troubling similarity: Children remained on buses after drivers completed their routes and exited the vehicles.

In the first case, a 5-year-old girl was reportedly left on a bus for several minutes after it arrived at Rio Real Dual Immersion Academy in August. The driver had returned to the school with a kindergartner whose caregiver was not present at his stop. The driver exited the bus with the boy, unaware that another student remained on board. A few minutes later, a crying girl exited the bus.

A second incident reportedly occurred Jan. 15 at Rio Del Norte School when a second-grade special education student who is nonverbal was discovered crying and banging on a bus door after the driver left her on board and entered the school building. Another driver opened the bus and escorted the child inside.

District officials said via the article that neither child was physically harmed, and both were left alone only briefly. Still, Assistant Superintendent Rafael Gaeta called the incidents unacceptable. “Two times in a year is way too much,” Gaeta said. “This is not normal.”

Both drivers received letters of reprimand and were reported to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which suspended their school bus driving privileges. One suspension is under review after a DMV hearing officer recommended setting it aside. The status of the second suspension has not been disclosed.

The California School Employees Association, which represents district bus drivers, has reportedly appealed both suspensions and argues the incidents do not meet the legal definition of “gross negligence,” a standard that can trigger DMV action under California law. Union officials also contend transportation employees face low morale, staffing challenges and inadequate support. They say drivers have been required to cover additional routes and have not consistently received updated student rosters.

The two drivers reportedly offered different explanations for the incidents. According to district records, the driver involved in the August incident at Rio Real described leaving the child on the bus as “an innocent mistake.” The driver involved in the January incident at Rio Del Norte said she left the bus to use the restroom after arriving at the school, though the district said video evidence contradicted that account.

The district’s buses are reportedly equipped with Child Check-Mate safety alarm systems, which require drivers to walk to the rear of the bus and deactivate an alarm after each route. According to district disciplinary records, both incidents occurred despite the presence of the safety system. California has required child safety alert systems on school buses since 2018 under the Paul Lee School Bus Safety Law, named for an autistic teenager who was nonverbal and died after being left on a school bus in 2015.

Data on how often children are left on school buses is difficult to obtain. The California Department of Motor Vehicles does not publicly release statewide totals, and nothing in the state’s bus safety law requires such disclosure.

Ryan Gray, editor of School Transportation News provided input in the article and said he is not aware of any comprehensive national data, though he said transportation professionals see “a couple dozen” news reports involving similar incidents across the country each year. Industry consultant Dick Fischer later told STN the last estimate he saw from the federal government was about 500 incidents a year, but the figure is several years old.

Gray said most school districts have a “zero tolerance policy” toward kids being left on a bus. “I know a lot of districts will just fire the drivers on the spot,” he said. “Others might suspend. It just depends on the district.”

Two incidents in one year in a school district, the size of Rio, it has about 5,000 students, 724 of whom ride the bus, seems unusual, Gray said. “When anything like this happens, one is too many,” he said.