The Jones County Sheriff’s Office will not file charges against a bus driver who found a 10-year-old special needs student on her bus, hours after she finished her morning route Tuesday.

Sheriff’s investigators finished their interviews Thursday morning, after the boy’s parents contacted law enforcement two days earlier, according to a sheriff’s office news release.

The boy, who attends Dames Ferry Elementary, boarded a school bus between 6:30 a.m. and 6:45 a.m. and should have been dropped off at school by about 8 a.m., Jones County schools Superintendent William Mathews said Wednesday.

However, the bus driver didn’t discover the child until about 1 p.m. while getting ready for the afternoon bus route.

Afterward, a school nurse checked the child and did not find any serious harm to him, Mathews said.

While the incident could have been avoided, sheriff’s investigators did not find “criminal intent or reckless conduct” in the case, according to the release.

The sheriff’s office is not releasing the bus driver’s name, because she wasn’t charged with a crime.

To contact writer Andrea Castillo, call 744-4331.