NY1 has learned that the National Labor Relations Board's Brooklyn office has finished its review of the bus companies' case on the city's yellow school bus strike and made a recommendation to its office in Washington.

Bus company owners lodged a complaint with the board last week, questioning the legality of the strike.

Bus drivers and matrons belonging to Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 have been on strike since January 16 to make sure that the city's new busing contracts include job protections for senior-level drivers.

City Hall and Department of Education officials claim that those provisions are illegal and have so far refused to negotiate with the union.

If the board rules in favor of the city, they then have to go to court and seek an injunction to force the drivers and matrons back to work, ending the strike.

A decision could come early next week, but the internal recommendation will not be made public.

More than 150,000 students' bus service has been disrupted by this ongoing strike, and roughly a third of the children are special needs students. Tens of thousands of families have been forced to find alternate ways to get their children to school.

According to the Department of Education, 91.6 percent of students attended class Thursday in the city public school system.

District 75 (special needs) schools had an attendance rate of only 65.1 percent Thursday, according to the DOE. That continues to be about 20 percentage points down from the regular attendance rate.