Fredericton girl with diabetes can't ride school bus without an attendant, district says
School district has been slow to accommodate a child with needs, family says
Another family seeking school bus accommodations for a child with diabetes is not getting the answers they hoped for from the Anglophone West School District.
Seven-year-old Alora and her family moved to the outskirts of Fredericton in October, a 25-minute bus ride from the school she attends, Montgomery Street Elementary.
Her stepmother, Emma Lamey, tried to arrange bus transportation for the girl, who has Type 1 diabetes. But after facing the resulting trail of bureaucracy, Lamey still feels like her stepdaughter is being left out.
"I've always been a strong advocate for her, just as who she is. She's not just Alora with diabetes. She's Alora," Lamey said.
"And she should be allowed to do those things as any other kid would."
But trying to arrange something as simple as a bus ride has been anything but.
Lamey said she contacted Anglophone West in October and was told the school had concerns about Alora's independence because of her diabetes and wanted her accompanied by an educational assistant on the bus.
Diagnosed when she was two years old, Alora needs daily insulin injections as well as close monitoring of her blood sugar and carbohydrate intake.
But by winter, there was still no solution.
"I provided all the information that they needed," Lamey said. "And all of a sudden there was no response whatsoever about whether she was approved or not to go on the bus."
Last August in Woodstock, which is also part of Anglophone West, a six-year-old diabetic boy was not initially accommodated to ride on the bus. Later that month the district did allow the boy to take the bus.
CBC News requested an interview with the district about Alora's situation but spokesperson Paul MacIntosh declined and said in an email that the district decided "upon reflection" it would not discuss the case.
"We feel that speaking publicly about a student's individual, exceptional needs violate their privacy and has the potential to cause harm," MacIntosh wrote.
In February, Lamey wrote to office of Kelly Lamrock, the child and youth advocate, David Coon, who is the MLA for her area, Education Minister Claire Johnson, and school district superintendent David McTimoney.
An email from McTimoney to Lamey said the district "tried very hard" to find an attendant, but was dealing with staffing issues. He wrote that the district had tried posting the job vacancy several times and had reached out to casual employees to ask if they would be interested in accompanying Alora.
The district offered to cover taxi rides to and from school or for Lamey to drive Alora and be reimbursed. Eventually an assistant was found for the afternoon trip, but Alora still has no bus ride for the morning.
"We will continue to try" to find an assistant for the morning, McTimoney wrote.
The district has said that if "staffing or other resources" present a barrier to implementation, "an accommodation may take time to implement but we make every effort to keep the lines of communication with families open and transparent."
The last Lamey said she heard from the district's transportation director was on Feb. 21, when he said Anglophone West was still working to find a morning assistant.
Kelly Lamrock's office was the most helpful, Lamey said, providing her with a form that she said the district never told her about.
"They did their best to try to keep me informed as much as possible as to next steps."
CBC News reached out to the office but a spokesperson said Lamrock was unavailable for comment.
Lamey said she declined the taxi and is still advocating for a two-way bus ride.
"I'll be honest, it's been a few rough years of trying to navigate through her diabetes," Lamey said.
She said she wishes the school district had communicated more.
After Alora had a bad experience in daycare when she was younger, with staff not being knowledgeable about managing diabetes, Lamey said she created a guide to explain Alora's condition.
But when she sent it to the district and asked for anyone who oversees Alora to read it, she said she did not get much of a response.
"I just feel like they're not really taking this seriously. It's been four-plus months and you would think by now that they would have a process in place for us parents with diabetic children, and there's no process."
Lamey said it's disappointing that parents have to jump through so many hoops and she shouldn't have to escalate the issue all the way to the superintendent.
While still hopeful for a fix, Lamey said the damage has already been done. She's worried about Alora missing out on the social interactions that come with taking the bus.
Alora rarely spoke negatively about her diabetes, Lamey said, but "now we're seeing some self-esteem issues."
"Policies and processes and stuff, sometimes people tend to forget how it can actually impact a family, a community."
As Alora herself said, "I want to be on the bus with my best friends."
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