The parents of a teenaged boy with a disability said a school bus company that was supposed to pick their son up from his first day of high school Tuesday, failed to show up, forcing staff at his school to bring him home themselves.

Brian Noel, 16, has cerebral palsy and can’t walk or talk, making him dependant on the people around him.

On Tuesday afternoon, after his first day at Austin O’Brien High School, Brian’s parents became worried after he wasn’t dropped off at home. A call from Brian’s teacher confirmed what had happened.

“He’s done at 2:30 [p.m.], they phoned us a quarter to 4, and said ‘Brian is still here, the bus hasn’t come’,” George Noel said.

School officials told Noel they were in contact with the bus company, Stock Transportation, that was supposed to pick the teen up and said the school was trying to figure out what went wrong – but a bus did not arrive.

“They called again by quarter to 5, and said there’s still no bus,” Noel said.

CTV News has learned two aides at the school waited with Brian for a bus to arrive. The Edmonton Catholic School District said Stock called at about 5 p.m., and said it would take until 6 for a driver to show up.

At this, the two aids loaded Brian onto a bus owned by the school district and drove him home themselves.

“It would be nice to get a call and say ‘Oops, we forgot to get your child, but we will send a bus there and go get them’,” Noel said.

“It’s not his teacher’s job, nor his aide’s job to transport him back and forth, but it is someone’s job to do that.”

The delay threw off Brian’s medication and eating schedule, the family said.

A request for an interview with Stock Transportation was denied Wednesday, but the company issued a statement to CTV News, saying:

The safety of the students we transport is our top priority; while we regret the error that resulted in this student not being picked up from school, we are relieved he was always accompanied by school personnel. We have reached out to apologize to the family directly. Yesterday’s occurrence was an isolated incident and does not exemplify the high quality of service for which stock is known. We have taken necessary precautions to ensure this does not happen again.

The school district said the delay was due to a miscommunication between the bus company and the driver.

“This is a really unfortunate incident, we have a severely disabled student who wasn’t able to get home, and I feel very badly to know he was waiting at the school,” Edmonton Catholic School District spokesperson Lori Nagy said.

Also on Wednesday, the Noel family told CTV News Stock Transportation had apologized, George Noel said the apology came after CTV News became involved – he said he was told the driver involved in Tuesday’s incident had been given a new route.

With files from Veronica Jubinville