Cherry Hill Father Appeals to State After School Bus Leaves Autistic Child at Wrong Home

The father of an autistic child who was dropped off at the wrong home and left unattended while being dropped off from summer school is asking state officials to pass strict regulations for school bus drivers and aides.

On Tuesday, July 8, Aikan Chaifetz was dropped off at the wrong home by the school bus as he was returning home from school, his parents claim. The house in which the child was dropped off was allegedly unoccupied at the time.

He was alone for an estimated 10-15 minutes before the homeowner, who had been out walking her dog and left her door unlocked, came home. She found him standing in her living room. He still had his backpack on and he asked her, “where’s dad?”

The homeowner recognized him from the neighborhood, knew where he lived and was able to return him home.

“If she had not recognized him, or had not returned home for some time, or if any other number of things went wrong, this could literally have been a life and death situation,” the child’s father, Stuart Chaifetz, said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

“Due to a clerical error, the bus had the wrong address. However, I hold the bus company 100 percent responsible for what happened, as the day before my son was returned to the correct house and that error should have been fixed by the bus company. In addition, and most importantly, under no condition should a child, especially one with special needs, be abandoned in any empty house. Either the bus aide was not trained or so poorly trained that she did not even think that it was wrong to leave a special needs child without handing him over directly to his parent.”

Although the school district was able to get the address right on the first day of summer school on July 7, there was a substitute driver and aide on the bus on July 8.

According to Chaifetz, the owner of the bus company involved in the incident eventually apologized and the aide is no longer with the company.

On Wednesday evening, Gov. Chris Christie’s office responded to a request for comment, stating it can’t pre-judge the case, but if true “this clearly demonstrates bad judgment on the part of the driver, at a minimum.”

“State regulations (N.J.A.C. 6A:27, Student Transportation) require all employers to ensure all school bus drivers and school bus aides be property trained,” Michael Drewniak, Press Secretary for Gov. Christie’s Office wrote Wednesday evening. “This includes load and unloading procedures, as well as student management, emergency procedures, exit drills, and inspecting the bus for students left on board at the end of a route.

“I am told that the New Jersey Department of Education’s Criminal History Review Unit is aware of the issue, and is looking into the matter to determine what state statutes or regulations, if any, may come into play, or whether this is a case that the local school district would have responsibility to pursue, if appropriate.”

He added that the Department of Education’s Office of Criminal History Review and the DCF Institutional Abuse Investigation Unit (IAIU) have aggressively pursued cases of bus driver neglect as recently as June.

This is not the first time Aikan Chaifetz has been in the news. In 2012, it was revealed that Chaifetz was allegedly verbally abused by staff at Horace Mann Elementary School when teachers were caught on recording calling him names and “teasing him to the point of a meltdown.”

Stuart Chaifetz is asking Gov. Chris Christie and the State Legislature to put in place strict rules for the training of bus drivers and aides.

“I have heard stories from other parents about problems with aides provided by school bus companies,” Chaifetz said. “That is why I am going public with this. This situation was absolutely devastating and we must do all we can to make sure no other family has to go through this kind of hell.”

After posting the video to his No More Teacher Bullies Facebook page, Chaifetz heard from parents who said they’ve had similar experiences, including the bus taking their child home to an empty house when the parent was at the school meeting with teachers, a non-verbal child in Illinois who was dropped off at the wrong house and the family refused to take her and a non-verbal child who was forgotten on the school bus and didn’t get home until 7 p.m.

Chaifetz posted a video on the subject on YouTube. That video is attached to this post.

A YouTube video from the previous incident involving the teachers and staff at Horace Mann can be seen here.