HISD mom says son's 13-minute bus ride turned into more than an hour

Houston - A Houston ISD mother says she spent more than two hours watching her son's location as his school bus traveled farther and farther from home, even after the district's SMARTtag system told her he was next to be dropped off.

The backstory:

Ellyse Espinoza's son is an eighth grader in an HISD magnet program. She says he has used district transportation for the past two years without any major problems.

That changed when the new school year began.

Espinoza says she received her son's transportation information the Friday before classes started. The schedule called for him to be picked up around 6 a.m. and dropped off around 5:45 p.m.

She decided to drive him to and from school while she tried to figure out whether he could return to the route he had previously used.

Mom struggles to reach HISD:

Espinoza says she began calling the transportation center serving her son's route on the first day of school.

During one call, she says she started as caller #151 and remained on hold for roughly two and a half hours before the call disconnected when she had reached caller #32. She called again and says she experienced another lengthy wait.

The following morning, Espinoza says she discovered HISD transportation had returned her request for a callback at about 5:30 a.m. When she called again around 6:15 a.m., she says she spent another roughly two and a half hours on hold before the call disconnected.

In all, Espinoza estimates she spent about nine hours on hold over two days.

She eventually went to her son's school and spoke with a bus driver whose route her son had used previously. Espinoza says her son rode that bus Thursday and Friday and reached his hub around 5 p.m.

Espinoza says she later spoke with someone from transportation and believed her son would be switched back to his previous bus. But Friday, she says she received information assigning him to another route with an expected afternoon drop-off around 4:45 p.m.

13-minute alert goes wrong:

Espinoza allowed her son to try the newly assigned route Tuesday afternoon.

She says he boarded the bus shortly after 4 p.m. and she followed his location using both his iPhone and HISD's SMARTtag system.

Around 4:30 p.m., Espinoza says SMARTtag sent her an alert saying her son was next to be dropped off and was about 13 minutes away.

The estimate appeared to line up with the 4:45 p.m. drop-off time she had been given.

"He'll be dropped off in 13 minutes. That's a text at 4:30," Espinoza told FOX 26. "I'm like, okay, he'll be home in 15 minutes."

Instead, she watched his location travel from the Hillcroft and Bissonnet area back toward his school, then near Reliant Stadium and into Sunnyside.

As she continued tracking him, Espinoza texted her son to make sure he was OK. At one point, he joked, "I'll be home when I'm 26 years old."

Espinoza says her son eventually arrived home around 6:15 p.m. and was the last student off the bus.

The experience left Espinoza questioning why SMARTtag told her he was next to be dropped off when the trip continued for well over another hour.

Family stops using bus:

Espinoza told FOX 26 Wednesday afternoon that she planned to stop putting her son on the bus and instead rely on herself, relatives and another family to get him to and from school.

She says the amount of time the new route could require was simply too much.

"That's four hours — four hours a day — and then they're at school all day," Espinoza said. "He gets on the bus at 6 a.m., school starts at 8:30, is at school until four, bus at 4:10 and then home at 6:10. Like, what kind of life is that?"

Espinoza says the afternoon trip is substantially longer than what her family experienced previously. Last school year, she says her son typically reached his stop around 4:45 p.m.

HISD reviews concerns:

FOX 26 contacted the HISD Press Office about Espinoza's concerns, including the extended bus ride, her difficulty reaching transportation and the SMARTtag notification.

At 2:26 p.m. Wednesday, the district told FOX 26 it was looking into the matter.

Later Wednesday, there was another development.

At 4:55 p.m., Espinoza told FOX 26 that she had heard from school officials and was told her son would be placed back on the route he used last year beginning Monday.

FOX 26 has not independently confirmed the route change with HISD's Press Office.