BATON ROUGE - A mother is upset over a situation that happened with her son last week. The six-year-old didn't come home on the bus at the normal time.

"It's every parent's worst nightmare," Melanie Washington said.

Her son King is in first grade at Westdale Heights Academic Magnet in East Baton Rouge Parish. His day starts early - the bus comes at 6:30 a.m. and drops him off around 5 p.m. A week ago, Washington watched on her phone as the air tag she dropped in her son's backpack went to a different part of town. It was around the time King typically got home from school.

She called the transportation number and no one answered the phone.

"I'm tracking the air tag, it's definitely going the wrong way," Washington said.

She's watching as the air tag continues traveling on the map. It was getting closer to six o'clock when that air tag stopped moving and she called the police.

"Where's my child?" she said.

The police got in touch with dispatch and found Washington's son riding the bus. That's when the bus driver called Washington's mom.

"I said, 'Just bring my child home immediately,' he responded, 'We'll be there in about an hour,'" Washington said.

The bus brought King home at 7:01 p.m. Washington received conflicting stories about what happened. East Baton Rouge Parish School System says King must transfer buses but on Monday he did not.

Given King's age and his close proximity to school, Washington had concerns about her son transferring buses before the school year started and asked questions. She was assured there would be people at the transfer location to help her son navigate the bus change.

"She said there's people at the transfer site that put the kids on the bus and there's not an issue," Washington said.

The East Baton Rouge Parish School System says every driver is responsible for making sure students get off at the transfer point if they need to. In the situation involving Washington's son, the protocol was not followed. It was a substitute bus driver.

Washington says when she spoke with the bus driver on the phone he admitted to her that he did not properly check his bus at the transfer site.

"Is there a procedure where you get up and check to see if children are asleep, did you not check your bus? He responded no and I said that's a problem," Washington said.

The driver finished the bus route and then dropped King off at his house. Washington says more needs to be done to make sure students are accounted for when riding the bus, especially at the transfer point.

"There needs to be a change," she said.

The EBRPSS says the policies have been reinforced to all bus drivers to make sure this doesn't happen again. Washington says her trust has been broken and her son won't be riding the bus.