The Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District found that a bus driver and a bus matron employed by a Department of Education vendor failed to transport six nonverbal special education students, ages 6 to 8, to their assigned Crown Heights school for roughly four hours one morning last December, leaving the children’s whereabouts unknown to school officials for much of the day and prompting a report to the New York City Police Department. The office, known as SCI, announced the findings Friday, October 16.

On Tuesday, December 16, 2025, the six students were scheduled to be dropped off at P.S. 289, also known as The Brower School, between 8:20 and 9 a.m., according to SCI. The bus did not arrive until approximately 1:25 p.m., nearly four and a half hours after the end of the scheduled window. For several hours, school officials could not determine where the students were.

A mother of two of the students used tracking devices placed inside their backpacks and determined that her children were traveling throughout Brooklyn rather than arriving at school, according to SCI. SCI opened its investigation in December 2025 after receiving a complaint about the missing bus.