Walk to school if you miss that bus!

I don't know that area so I would have no knowledge of whether it was safe for the kids to walk or not.

I know my daughter would not be safe walking to her school. It's not far, it's totally walkable by distance, but she would have to cross two major roads (3 or 4 lanes each direction) at uncontrolled intersections including crossing two highway on ramps. That's not okay with me. Kids who live in the neighborhood and don't have to cross the highway are perfectly safe walking to and from - but we live in the next cluster over, still in the school boundary but across the intersection of two major roads, and that makes a big difference to me. It's the major street crossings that I'm not ok with for an elementary schooler.

It sounds to me like a bad situation that got blown out of proportion. Why doesn't mom have a license? Where's dad? What other factors are involved? Was a charge of neglect appropriate or does the family need resources? Hard to tell. Lots of judgment available to pass around though, clearly.

If these kids were walking on a sidewalk, no problem. It sounds like they were walking on a road when many people were going to work. That isn't safe.

They were clearly put in an unsafe situation.

We have the same situation as moveablefeast in that we don't live far from school by car, but to walk wouldn't be safe for an adult with a state highway (speed limit is 65 mph where our two neighborhood entrances to the highway are) divide us and the school and there are no crosswalks whatsoever. There are no crosswalks for a reason, no one should be walking out there. Our neighborhood doesn't have any sidewalks period, so to walk anywhere you're walking in the street. The quieter streets are fine but some of the busier streets, I wouldn't want my kindergartener walking along there because there are simply too many cars and they're going too fast.

The neighborhood our school is directly located in is much denser, houses close together, sidewalks and walking paths present, 30 mph speed limit max, so there are many kids from that neighborhood that do walk but most of the other kids are bussed because of the highway and/or distance from school. If my child missed her bus, I would have to come up with another consequence, such as going to bed and getting up an hour earlier and missing out on after dinner activities she enjoys as a result. For my kid in particular, having to get up earlier would be the better consequence because it would be much less desirable than having to walk three miles and the point would still be made.

Under appropriate circumstances, I could see letting the kids walk as being a suitable consequence for missing the bus but not if it would put them in an unsafe situation. Common sense (which sadly isn't always all that common) ought to prevail. Having young children (who would be difficult to see due to their size) walk along the side of a busy road at a time when many people would be going to work, probably in semi-darkness, and hoping other drivers will stay away from the shoulder where they're walking is counting an awful lot on other people not doing stupid things. With all the crazy stories about people texting, eating, putting on makeup, even shaving while driving, there are a lot of distracted drivers on the road these days.