A single mom living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said the school-bus strike would leave her with a brutal decision this morning and for each day it drags on — which of her kids needs to go to school the most.
Tameka Carter has four children who attend schools in different neighborhoods — from Downtown Brooklyn all the way across the borough to East New York — including three who receive door-to-door services because they have special needs.
“I have to debate who I want to send, who needs to go more, because it’s going to be hard to get them to school,” Carter told The Post. “I might keep them home.”
The Department of Education Web site suggested there was a chance that two of her kids’ buses could operate today, but it depends on a host of variables — including whether nonunion drivers can access bus depots.
Another single parent, Kayan Facey, said it’s likely that son Ryan Kelly, 9, who has cerebral palsy, will have to stay home for much of the strike.
Facey and Ryan live in Canarsie, Brooklyn, but the boy, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, attends PS 58 in Maspeth, Queens.
She said she would have to spend nearly her entire day riding public transportation in order to get him to school.
“I don’t have no way of taking him to school,” she said. “It would take almost two hours because I would have to take a bus, two trains and then another bus to get there.”
The nonprofit Advocates for Children called on the city to do more to accommodate 54,000 kids with special needs who are likely to be severely impacted.
The Manhattan group said financial hardship makes it difficult for families to front the money for car service, and disabilities may keep certain students from public transportation or private cars.
Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland