Kids who need that level of checking (which, yes, would be most 5-year-olds) should not be riding school buses.
Or there should be an aide riding the bus to keep tabs on the little ones (like age 5 thru 8); the driver can’t drive and do that too safely
On the first day of school Mom Dad or a friend should have been following the school bus. This kind of thing happens all the time the first day of school even the first week of school.
A person who was really on top of things would have found out the route of the school bus and taken the kids beforehand around to show them where they would be let off so that they could tell the bus driver this isn’t our stop.
As a parent grandparent and great-grandparents you have to know that you have to be proactive. You quiz the kids and ask them what they would do in different circumstances. It’s a tough world out there and kids need to be prepared and we need to prepare them and not expecting any state to take care of them.