LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Riding the bus in high school can be a challenge, but one Lehigh Acres mom has a different kind of problem. She says the special needs bus that picks up her son won't let her daughter ride to school with him.
When Andrea Olmos moved to Lehigh Acres in April, she found out her son and daughter couldn't take the same bus. They both are juniors at the same school.
"He really depends on somebody at all times so having him with my daughter...it makes you feel a lot more comfortable because I'm like I know she knows that communication," Olmos said.
Her 17-year-old son, Julio, was born with hydrocephalus - a neurological disorder caused from too much fluid in his brain.
His 16-year-old sister, Barbara, always rode the school bus with him.
Watch Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades report below:
Olmos said, "I just don't understand. If there's a bus stop in front of my house, why can't both of my kids join the same bus."
She says did not have this problem while living in Broward and Orange counties.
Olmos, a single mom, goes into work before her kids go to school and gets home after school ends. She tells FOX 4 she depends on her daughter to help with Julio when she's not home.
Since the district doesn't let the siblings ride the bus together, Barbara's bus would pick her up an hour before Julio and drop her off after school an hour after her brother's bus.
Olmos felt like she had no other option to keep her children together, so she chose to pay Lyft or other parents to drive her children to and from school.
"I have to pay extra for a service that is already provided for the school. On top of that, like, it's a special needs kid and nobody knows him better than my daughter," she said.
Olmos said she couldn't get anyone at the district to tell her why they can't ride together.
Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades looked into this, and found in 2019, the district ended the sibling ridership program on ESE buses.
In a statement to Fox 4, the Lee County School District said,
"We are not currently placing siblings on ESE buses because of space limitations and ongoing enrollment of students who require transportation. We will review requests on case by case basis once ridership and routes have stabilized."
The district also told Rhoades they plan to call Olmos for a temporary solution.
Olmos said, "It just shouldn't be this hard to get them to school and home every day."
