One of them was a 4-year-old boy who spent hours wandering the streets alone.
Eyewitness News spoke to the family exclusively.
"And he was just walking the streets, for two hours," said Elzbieta Niczewska, the student's mother.
A tearful Elzbieta Niczewska told Eyewitness News the story that could have ended far worse for her son Jan.
He's just 4 years old and it was his very first time on the school bus home from kindergarten at P.S. 119 in Glendale.
"Were you scared at all?" Eyewitness News reporter Stacey Sager asked.
"No," Jan said.
"So he's wearing this card which says where his stop is and he definitely didn't get off at this stop?" Sager asked.
"No, because my mom is standing there for three and a half hours," Niczewska said.
She says the driver told everyone on the bus to get off at Fresh Pond Road and Catalpa Avenue.
That's more than half a mile from the boy's home on 67th Place.
She says he then walked to his aunt's house on Forest Avenue, then over to his grandmother's house near Myrtle Avenue, before finally walking home and ringing up to his landlord's apartment, because his mom was still rushing home from work.
"I can't even describe how proud I am," Niczewska said.
Meanwhile, at Bobby's Bus Company in Ozone Park, they are promising a full investigation.
"They told me my son is supposed to know where he's getting off, and you're telling me he's supposed to know?" Niczewska said.
"Should a driver make sure that a parent is there?" Sager asked.
"It's not protocol, it's not mandated," the bus company said.
It's not mandated and so the boy's mother says she's too afraid to put her son back on the school bus, even though the Department of Education says they'll have a safety inspector on the bus Friday.
"Do you want to go back on the school bus?" Sager asked.
"Yes," Jan said.
He's as brave as ever.
