MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Payton Young has blossomed at Bunche Park Elementary School.
The 7-year-old is intellectually disabled and gets speech and physical therapy. Her mother, Marquis Holton, said Payton has been talking more lately and is almost fully potty-trained.
"She is the same just as everybody else, and I feel like she deserves the same privilege as any other child," Holton said.
Payton's individual educational plan, known as an IEP, requires Miami-Dade County Public Schools to give her transportation to and from school. The second-grade student has always received transportation until the first day of the current school year.
"I called transportation. They told me she was not eligible," Holton said.
Holton doesn't have a car, so Payton's grandmother, Wana Holton, has been juggling rides for Payton and her cousins, who attend different schools at different times.
"I just think that somewhere along the line, someone dropped the ball," she said.
Another parent, who declined an interview, told Local 10 News that her special needs son has also been denied transpiration.
"I've heard parents complain in the office while I was in there complaining, as well," Marquis Holton said. "Sometimes I feel like they throw the special-needs kids kind of on the back burner."
Payton transferred to Bunche Park in January 2015, and it wasn't until the current school year that officials told Marquis Holton that her daughter's old transfer took Payton off the transportation list.
Officials said that was a mistake and that she was eligible for transportation, but they didn't have a route for Payton and advised her mother to move her to a new school.
"The only thing I was told was that they were cutting back on routes, so they could not send out a bus to pick up one child," Marquis Holton said.
Another mother named Shirley, who lives in the same neighborhood as Payton's family, said her son, who uses a wheelchair, also attends Bunche Park and gets transportation.
"These kids need transportation, and guess what? We as the taxpayers pay for it," Shirley, who did not want to appear camera or have her last name used, said.
A spokesman for Miami-Dade County Public Schools released a statement about the situation.
"This situation was a challenge because of several factors," John Schuster told Local 10 News in an email. "Originally, the child received a McKay scholarship, including transportation, to attend Bunche Park Elementary. This year, Bunche Park was not a receiving school for McKay scholarships. Since Bunche Park is not the child's designated school, transportation was not provided. We have worked with the family to offer the parent a satisfactory solution."