MIAMI – A dozen current and former Miami-Dade County Public Schools bus employees have been arrested for filing fraudulent insurance claims totaling more than $400,000, authorities said.

An investigation by state of Florida fraud detectives found the employees used the personal information of nearly 11 children to file fraudulent insurance reimbursement claims.

Between 2015 and 2018, the 12 employees, which included bus drivers and aides, submitted 68 fraudulent accident injury insurance claims to an insurance company using the same injury accident information.

According to detectives, the employees obtained legitimate medical records supplied by fellow participants and shared the personal information of children who were previously treated at various medical facilities, enabling them to file insurance claims as if they were the parents of the children.

Over the period in which the investigation took place, insurance companies paid a total of $426,933.

"When public employees are a part of the problem and when public medical benefits are used to make the scheme work, these are shameful events," Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. "They are also crimes."