SCHOOL: Short end of the stick

We have a special needs daughter who is starting kindergarten this year. Emma should be riding the school bus, but we were informed that they wanted to pick Emma up five minutes AFTER school starts and put her on the bus 20 minutes before school lets out. Emma would be split busing, bus 12 in the morning and bus 13 at lunch. Post Falls kindergarten only has a two-hour and 50-minute day. Emma would be there for just under two hours. Less if the buses were running late.

I have had several people from the bus drivers to people at Fredrick Post tell us, “That is just the way it is.”

I had the afternoon driver tell me, “I always pick the special needs kids up around 11:20.” School lets out at 11:45.

What amazes me is that no one and I mean no one inside the school district sees a problem with this. I just get shrugs and told that is the way it is. Every special needs child in Post Falls has a short school day. They are not getting the same education as the other children.

Why are we the only people who see this as wrong? Why is this such an open secret? Why has it been allowed to go on year after year with no one talking about it? If every parent in Post Falls with a “normal” child was going to be told their children were having their day cut short, it would be fixed. It would at the very least be talked about.

DAN and SHELLY ERCKENBRACK

Post Falls