Overview

• On Aug. 29, a 13-year-old New Britain student with autism was driven roughly 40 miles to Danbury; his mother used iPhone location data and reunited with him at a Southington 7‑Eleven.
• Other families reported late pickups and misroutes, including a nonverbal, wheelchair-using student taken to the wrong Plainville school and arriving around 10:45 a.m.
• First Student acknowledged failures tied to GPS outages, delayed bus deliveries and driver shortages, and said it is bringing in out-of-state drivers and offering sign-on and referral bonuses.
• The company named a location manager and activated real-time Zonar bus tracking and staffed support lines to stabilize specialized routes.
• New Britain’s school district says service is improving, has arranged alternative transportation for the affected student, and is considering financial penalties if performance falls short.