No Child Left Behind. Literally.

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 17, 2009 10:40PM

Today, Gov. Quinn signed into a law a bill that falls under the "This should be common sense" umbrella. The law requires school bus drivers to check the bus to make sure there are no children left on board after each trip. Of course, the new law was inspired by actual events, when a 4-year-old autistic boy was left on board his school bus. The Tribune revisits that incident:

The boy's parents, Marc Martin and Lisa Zago-Martin of Park Ridge, said they were terrified when they received a call from their son's school one April morning informing them that his backpack had arrived for class but he did not.

"Needless to say, we were shocked and the first thing we wanted to do was contact the bus," Marc Martin said. "Well, we couldn't get a hold of the bus because it had no radio."

The child was found unharmed about an hour later. The Martins contacted their state lawmakers in an attempt to prevent other children from being left behind.

If a bus driver is caught not making the requisite inspections, punishment could entail a license suspension of up to three years.