Howard County Public Schools bus issues have parents frantic on first day: 'No bus came'

BALTIMORE -- Many parents in Howard County had to drive their children to school on the first day due to major delays in the school bus schedule.

Several parents called and emailed the WJZ Newsroom about the issues.

Some of them said the buses were late or just didn't show.

One parent tells told WJZ that all of the confusion led to her daughter getting on the wrong bus Monday morning.

"So, the first day of school, no bus came," parent Mandy Bergin said.

Bergin, one of many Howard County parents who had to drive their kids to school on the first day, said she waited 50 minutes for her son's bus, but it never showed.

"We didn't want him to be late for the first day of school," Bergin said. "That's something special, you know, we didn't want him to miss it."

Another parent told WJZ, the confusion caused her middle school-aged daughter to get on the wrong bus.

"My daughter actually jumped on the high school bus this morning, not realizing it," parent Nikki Marlatt-Young said. "Then they got down the road, and then she told the bus driver that she was on the wrong bus, that she's a middle schooler, and then he let her off right there."

Marlatt-Young said the bus driver left her daughter on a busy street.

"No sidewalks," Marlatt-Young said. "It's a huge busy intersection with a great deal of accidents. You're going to let her out at that intersection of all places? So yeah, not to mention she could've been snatched."

WJZ reached out to Howard County Schools to see what caused the issues.

We obtained messages sent out to parents.

According to the superintendent, delays often happen at the start of the school year because drivers are learning their routes. On Monday morning, more than 200 buses were trying to leave the bus depot at the same time, causing a major traffic bottleneck.

The superintendent also said one of the issues that caused delays was the fact that some bus numbers did not match the ones parents found on the school district's "Connect" website, which is a platform used to communicate with parents.

WJZ spoke to parents who are hoping these issues will be resolved quickly.

"If you have two working parents, I don't know how you do that," Bergin said. "A lot of families had to drive their kids to school that weren't planning on doing that."