Parents worried some Oakbrook Elementary students are not being fed breakfast due to late bus arrivals

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – A Dorchester County woman said issues at her daughter’s school are leaving the 7-year-old child without food to eat in the morning.

Jessica Byers said she recently learned her daughter, who attends Oakbrook Elementary School, was not able to eat breakfast on certain mornings because her school bus was running late.

“She absolutely loves going to school. She loves making friends and socializing. She loves her teacher very, very much and always has- she excels in all of her class work, she’s super excited she’s a bus rider this year so she’s been super excited to meet kids on the bus that live in the area,” said Byers.

But her daughter recently brought up an issue at school.

“she has come to me a couple of times saying, ‘mommy my bus was late I didn’t get to eat breakfast.’ And I’m like sure you did, you just didn’t like breakfast. So today she was really going on and she said you know the bus is late I’m not gonna be able to eat breakfast.”

Byers knew her daughter had money in her account, so she called the school.

“She called me back and she said unfortunately they do not get to eat breakfast. With COVID being gone, I don’t remember her exact words, we do not have to offer breakfast to late arrivals.”

Byers then asked if that is the case even if a school bus is late.

“She said ‘well if we have crackers or granola at the front desk enough for everybody, we will offer but if we don’t have enough for everybody then we just send them on to class.’”

News 2 reached out to Dorchester District 2 about the problem. They sent us the following statement:

“Dorchester School District Two is committed to ensuring DDTwo students have access to breakfast and lunch. While breakfast service at Oakbrook Elementary School stops at 7:10 a.m., students who are late because of a school bus delay can still receive a meal.”

Byers said she’s willing to personally volunteer to serve breakfast or do whatever she can to help make sure kids can get breakfast even if the bus is running late.