IDEA and some questions.

Hello. I am posting on behalf of my mother.

State: Washington

My 4 year old brother has mild autism. He takes the short bus to school everyday, recently they changed the routes and changed his bus. He now rides the short bus with high school and middle school students. There are no aides on the bus, the only adult is the driver. My brother is strapped into his seat, none of the other students are. My brother is also the only pre-schooler on this bus, no one else around his age is present. The bus company refuses to swap the routes, or add an aide to the bus.

My mother is concerned that my brother could get hurt on the bus by the other students. The bus also stops at the high school before the elementary school, and he really doesn't understand this. This also causes a problem in that all the other kids have to go walk past his seat where he is strapped in.

I was curious if anyone knew what the proper actions to take here would be. We have talked to the bus manager and she basically tried to tell my mom that she was a horrible person for trying to make homeless children wake up early (or something similar, involving why the bus route was changed).

IIRC I have read something about how in all things, transportation, sports, school services, etc. that schools are supposed to try their best at treating special needs kids the same as nuerotypical children. This is obviously not being followed here. There are no preschoolers riding alone on a bus full of high school and middle school students in this district, and they would not allow that.

Thank you for the help, if you need anymore info I will provide it to the best of my abilities.