A 5-year-old girl left on a Bennington school bus walked part of the way home alone before being picked up by the superintendent. The district said the bus driver failed to do his job.

The girl's parents say she was left on the bus at the bus barn after she'd been on it for the entire bus route, even passing her house.

When she realized no one was coming to get her, she pushed the bus doors open, then opened a side door of the barn and headed west down the sidewalk, almost getting to 168th and Bennington Road before she was found by the superintendent. It's a little less than a half-mile, but this is a 5-year-old kindergarten student.

"You notice how high these seats are for safety reasons, a kindergarten student's head would be just about where that window is and so you probably can't see my hand at this point in time," said
Bennington Superintendent Terry Haack as to why the driver did not see the student last week on her first day of school.

Haack said that's not an excuse. The bus driver simply didn't do his job, which includes doing a bus walk-through at the end of every route, checking each and every seat.

"It was a simple mistake and certainly the district has ownership in that as well," Haack said.

Since that day, Bennington school bus drivers have been retrained on safety. There's also a new policy.

"What we've installed is that the driver is at the door at either school and they'll check kids coming on and that's the checklist they have,” Haack said. “It goes Monday through Friday so check 'em on, check 'em off."

For parents, telling children to speak up is a backup safety measure.

"The bus driver has a cell phone. If you got missed, make sure the bus driver calls me,” Haack said. “I think a kindergartner would understand how to do that."

A letter was also sent home to let parents know what time their child should be getting on and off the bus.

The little girl is back to riding the school bus. Haack said he can't comment on whether the driver’s been disciplined or whether he’s still employed because it's a personnel matter. Haack did say the driver was retrained about those bus walk-throughs.