A first-grader from Monroe was left alone on a school bus for more than five hours last Wednesday, the boy's mother says.

The child was supposed to be dropped off at the Sapphire Elementary School, but instead school officials say he was taken back to the district's bus garage after both the driver and the monitor failed to check the bus.

The child was later found sleeping in the back of the bus, unharmed.

The driver and the monitor were fired for failing to follow transportation protocol.

"There's absolutely no excuse for this," says Monroe-Woodbury Central School District Superintendent Joseph DiLorenzo. "We're grateful the child wasn't harmed."