Special Needs 4-Year-Old Left On School Bus For Hours, NJ Prosecutors Say

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — A Montville child was left unsupervised on a school bus for hours, according to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.

Authorities said that on the morning of July 10, a four-year-old student with special needs was left on a school bus in a bus depot for more than two hours.

The child’s absence was noted by the staff of Valley View Elementary School in Towaco, police said. School officials called the child’s parents, who assured them that they had gotten on the bus that morning.

The student was found in the vehicle about two and a half hours after it was parked at the bus yard, police said. The child was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of an elevated heart rate and low blood pressure, according to officials.

Frank J. Blair, 61, of Hamburg, the school bus driver, has been charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. He is accused of not checking the bus before getting off, which is required by state statute.

“A school bus driver shall visually inspect the school bus to which he/she is assigned at the end of the transportation route to determine that no pupil has been left on the bus,” the statute reads. “The ‘end of a transportation route’ is when all pupils are dropped off at their assigned destinations, or the last stop.”

Blair was released from custody on conditions to include no supervision of juveniles, police said.