Students with disabilities are being ushered onto school buses up to 40 minutes before the end of the school day, a New York newspaper investigation found.

The practice leaves countless students with disabilities shortchanged on their education as schools across New York City routinely send students to board buses well before school officially ends.

In visits to schools across the area, the New York Daily News found dozens of students at a time shepherded onto buses well ahead of dismissal. When the newspaper approached school officials about the shortened classroom time, they acknowledged the problem at six schools and pledged to correct it immediately.

However, at four other schools, officials said the early dismissals would continue because those schools serve students with severe medical conditions. These students receive instructional time during breakfast and lunch to make up for the shortened day, officials said.

That explanation doesn’t satisfy some parents who don’t buy that there’s mealtime instruction or that their children are receiving all the schooling they need during the abbreviated day. Instead they say their kids leave school early only to sit on a bus while it makes the rounds to collect children at other schools, reports the New York Daily News. To read more click here.

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