An 11-year-old sixth grader with special needs was left stranded outside her Queens home this week when her assigned school bus never showed up, forcing her parents to drive her nearly an hour each way to her Nassau County school instead. Paige Bergin's family says the issue may not be resolved for weeks.
According to WABC-TV, Paige's bus failed to arrive at her Queens home on Tuesday, the first day back at Henry Viscardi School, a specialized school located in Nassau County. Her father, Patrick Bergin, said 19 other students connected to Paige's special-needs school transportation had to find their own way to Henry Viscardi School that morning, a scramble that left multiple families improvising rides on short notice.
The New York City Department of Education is responsible for arranging Paige's transportation, but the agency had not returned a request for comment as of the report. With no bus available, Paige's parents drove her nearly an hour each way between Queens and Nassau County, a commute the outlet's report notes can stretch to almost an hour each way during rush-hour traffic.
Other Students Also Left Without Rides
Marianne Bergin said the family has had no choice but to drive Paige to and from school themselves while the bus service remains unresolved. She said the disabled students affected by the transportation breakdown on Tuesday included children in wheelchairs, students using walkers, and students with multiple disabilities. The Bergins also learned that day that other families on Paige's route were dealing with the same no-show problem.
Paige's parents said they were told the transportation issue may not be resolved for weeks, according to the WABC-TV report. Despite the disruption, the family hopes Paige will continue attending school without interruption while they wait for a fix. Marianne Bergin said her daughter has the right to an education and to transportation, and that transportation problems have been an ongoing issue for students with special needs.
A System Already Under Scrutiny
Paige's case lands amid mounting evidence that no-show buses are not an isolated glitch. A December 2025 audit from the Office of the New York City Comptroller found that the Department of Education's Office of Pupil Transportation received more than 150,000 complaints during the 2023–24 school year. The same audit found that students with disabilities were disproportionately affected. The audit also focused on the city's pupil transportation system.
The scale of the operation is enormous: NYC Public Schools provides transportation for students daily, including curb-to-school transportation for students with disabilities when their Individualized Education Programs recommend it, per the Comptroller's report. Under both federal law and New York State Education Law, that specialized transportation is a required service districts must provide at no cost when it is written into a student's IEP. According to the NYC Comptroller, approximately 43% of students who take school buses in NYC have at least one disability, and bus delays mean that these students are missing.
Outdated Software, Uncollected Penalties
Part of the breakdown involves the Office of Pupil Transportation's bus-routing system. The Comptroller's audit discussed routing, technology oversight and GPS-related penalties. City Limits has reported that the Department of Education logged 4,476 no-show bus complaints and 8,068 delays and breakdowns during the opening weeks of a recent school year, alongside a 20 percent jump in transportation-related calls to the disability advocacy group IncludeNYC.
Families have pushed back through legal channels before. In October 2023, seventeen NYC families filed a federal complaint against the Department of Education, according to Legal Services NYC. The complaint was directed at the Department of Education.
What's at Stake for Chronic Absenteeism
The stakes go beyond a single frustrating morning. Chalkbeat has reported that ongoing bus delays and missing routes can contribute to chronic absenteeism among NYC students with disabilities. Henry Viscardi School itself is a specialized school in Nassau County serving students with disabilities.
For now, the Bergins are left doing the commute themselves and hoping the district moves quickly. The family says it wants a quick solution.
