Benson Hill Elementary School has re-committed to procedures to get kids on the right school bus, after two 5-year-olds were left stranded on a busy highway Sept. 16.

The incident also led the Renton School District to examine its transportation procedures districtwide.

But the incident involving the Benson Hill kindergartners was an “anomaly” said a district spokesperson.

“This was an anomaly. Like I said, 10,000 kids got home that day safely,” said the spokesman, Randy Matheson. It was “not a system-wide failure, just that bus on that day,” he said.

The two five-year-olds at Benson Hill Elementary were put on the wrong bus and left 1 1/2 miles on the Benson Highway from their destination on Sept. 16.

Benson school officials have made sure that students at Benson Hill will be identified with name cards detailing their bus route, intended destination and parent contact information. Bus drivers will have a list of all those students who are supposed to be on their bus.

This, according to Matheson, was not a new procedure, but a procedure that just wasn’t being followed the day the students were left at the wrong bus stop.

The substitute bus driver did not have a list of the kids who were supposed to be on his bus that day, Matheson said.

Despite the renewed emphasis on transportation procedures, parents are still concerned.

“I’m kind of worried too and that’s the first kid we have in school,” said Phong Dang of his son, who he was picking up from kindergarten at Benson Hill Elementary the Friday after the incident.

His wife told him of the incident with the two 5-year-olds after learning about it on the news. Now they put a note in his backpack on the days their son takes the bus, just in case he gets lost. The note has his home address and parent contact information on it.

“It’s pretty disturbing to hear what happened to those poor kids,” said Linda Johnson, mother of another kindergartner at the school.

Her daughter is in the bus zone, meaning she has the option to ride the bus to school, but Johnson drives her to and from school to avoid situations like the Sept. 16 incident.

“She’s 5, you know, and like those poor kids if something happens – they don’t know where they are,” she said. “They don’t have any direction or they don’t have phones. They can’t call. Something like that is pretty disturbing.”

Parent Shea Colar remembers being “livid and petrified” when one of her sons, who is now a teenager, was put on the wrong school bus when they lived in Snohomish County. This incident brought back memories for her. Colar has another son at Benson Hill, in the second grade.

When she got an automated message from the school on Sept. 20 giving parents a heads up to the incident, she said it scared her to pieces.

“I’ve heard stories like this before, but you would think that by now there would be a system that each school had where parents don’t have to worry,” Colar said.

After the incident principals and administrative assistants emailed district headquarters the cards they use to identify students. They were all very consistent, Matheson said.

“It’s working fine at other schools; we just have to make sure they’re implementing it at all schools,” Matheson said.

The principal, Martha Flemming, had a conversation with all the kindergarten staff and addressed the incident, he said.

This safety procedure will continue for the first couple of months of school, Matheson said, until bus drivers and students are comfortable with the routine, taking into account changes parents may make if children go to daycare or a new school in the district.