Thinking Beyond the Bus

We've been doing this with some individuals in our community-based programs. Opposed to take a van to a center, individuals may travel independently or with staff who live nearby directly to their volunteer site.

OAKLAND, Calif. — When one thinks of school transportation, a yellow school bus is what usually comes to mind.  But for many Bay Area kids with special needs, getting to school can be much more complicated.

School districts are required by law to provide transportation, if needed, to fulfill students’ special needs and they use a variety of methods to do that.  Sometimes that means transporting students miles away from home by car service, taxi and even employee’s personal vehicles to get them to a specialized school.  

It usually takes 9-year-old Joseph Ferguson about an hour to make the 26 mile trip from Oakland to San Francisco to get to school. Specialists at the Edgewood Center in San Francisco help him with his learning, emotional and developmental disabilities.  Normally, a school van drives him, but on Friday his ride was more unconventional when a woman his family had never seen before showed up at his door.