BATON ROUGE - Some Baton Rouge parents are concerned after the EBR Schools bus failed to pick up their students multiple times since the start of the school year, school leaders say they are working to get students to school.

For the second time this week, Frances Young drove her son to Westdale Middle School.

"They're not able to catch their bus at their bus stop," she said.

Young said her son's bus number kept changing and the bus failed to show up multiple times this month to pick up students. She added, the Where'sTheBus app, which parents were encouraged to download to track buses, doesn't pass the grade.

"I'm trying to follow the app, which says the bus status is inactive. There's no real way for me to determine what bus number, what time to have my child outside," Young said.

When the bus didn't pick up her son on Tuesday, Frances said she contacted the school system's transportation office who gave her a bus number and said her son would be picked up Wednesday. But just before six on Wednesday morning, Young received a text saying the bus was full and that a second bus would return to pick up the students. Young said the second bus never arrived.

"I believe the children should still be picked up. If the children are allowed to be tardy due to the transportation issues, that's fine, but at least have them picked up," Young said.

Neighbors along Pascagoula Drive agree, telling WBRZ they watched the number of students waiting for the bus grow, noting the students often wait until well past school start times.

"I noticed this morning, the bus didn't come and pick them up. They didn't come this morning. They had some kids sitting right there saying, 'Well, how are we going to get to school?'" Jeanette Grinner, a neighbor, said.

Young and her son live 20 minutes away from Westdale Middle School.

EBR District 5 School Board Member Cliff Lewis said that distance can pose issues. But as soon as WBRZ reached out, Lewis said he started making calls to principals to find a solution.

"Westdale. Great school. Great principal. They're doing a great job over there. I do know they are working overtime, making sure they get the kids routed. Matter of fact, people from transportation have been on site at Westdale, trying to assist in this routing issue," Lewis said.

Lewis said, he and the school want to get the students on the bus, pointing to a lack of bus drivers as a reason for the transportation issues.

"If I had to put my finger on one key issue, it would be a lack of drivers," Lewis said. "It could be a new driver. It could be a driver who had not run that route before who is, so to speak, getting their feet wet on that route."

Young hopes to see her son on a bus to school soon.

"My child is missing instructional time; that's the biggest thing," she said.