Do you know any other children from your neighborhood who meet at the same bus stop to ride the school bus to the 4th grade? If you do, you might try to meet their parents and see if their child might be a "bus buddy" for your child. If either child is NOT attending school on a particular day, the parents would contact each other so a child knows whether or not to expect to meet the bus buddy at the bus stop that morning.
If you do not know other children in your neighborhood who ride the same bus to 4th grade... Would the school suggest 2 or 3 of the older students as "bus buddies"? Typically bus buddies would be introduced to the younger child and designated as safe people for the younger child to sit with and converse with.
If a school (or a student) is keeping track of leadership activities or teamwork activities to count toward possible future Student Senate or other positions, being a bus buddy would count toward that.
