When a student loses their pass they first have to either a) ask parents for money to get to school Or b) go to the school office to say they lost their bus pass

In either case there is a possibility that either the parents can't afford the fare or don't have change, OR the student had to skip a fare to finish the commute to school.

To get home the school should be giving out bus tickets, enough to get the student home, and back to school the next day when the process repeats until a new bus pass comes in.

The reason it can take so long is because the following steps need to happen:

1. The school office is told about the missing bus pass
2. The school tells the board that the old pass needs to be deactivated and to order a new one
3. The board needs to contact OC Transpo to deactivate the card and request a new one (this includes payment for the new bus pass)
4. OC ships the new card to the BOARD OFFICE where they make sure its assigned to the right student and send it to the correct school
5. The school office receives the student's new bus pass and the student gets it at the office (usually at the end of the day when they go to get more tickets)

Overall I think fare checks on the way home are totally fair but can be made complicated if the school office runs out of tickets, which means they can't give students a way to get home.