Details about this story

• Source: New York Daily News
• Date: March 22, 2007
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Robert Gearty , Benjamin Lesser , Richard T. Pienciak , Greg B. Smith
• Topics: Education , Safety
• Data Types: State Data , FOIA
• Description/Excerpt: Inside the city's familiar yellow school buses, our youngest loved ones are being abused in alarming numbers - physically, emotionally and even sexually, a four-month Daily News investigation shows. The Department of Education-administered bus program, which transports 142,000 public and private school students daily, is a dirty little secret - rife with incompetence, negligence and indifference. Using documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Law and civil lawsuits dating back a decade, The News investigation has found a long-hidden history of lax over-sight, weak regulations, dubious recordkeeping, too few investigators and an ineffective disciplinary system. Total complaints against drivers and bus monitors have skyrocketed 79% between last year and 2002 - rising to 3,547 from 1,980, according to a News analysis of Department of Education statistics. At least 78 drivers and monitors were arrested last year, almost all for off-duty crimes, including rape, endangering the welfare of a child and drunken driving. That number represented an increase of 63% from 2005, when a bus monitor was charged with murder.