About free school transport
We automatically check for transport when placing children. You only need to apply for:
- low income transport or
- child or parents with medical or physical conditions.
If you are not sure your child qualifies please visit
For full information, please download the school transport policy on the Transport policies page.
If your child is eligible, they will get transport between home and school at the beginning and end of the school day. This will be either:
- a ticket for public transport
- a seat on a hired vehicle
If there is no suitable public transport or hired vehicle and you can arrange travel, we can help with mileage.
We will help with the cost of two return journeys per day. We pay 25p per mile, per family for the distance between home and school.
Travel for siblings
When we are allocating routes, we shall do our best to make sure siblings travel together.
When transport is not supplied
Transport services other than at the start or end of the school day
Our duty is to provide transport to get children to and from school at the beginning and end of the school day. It is the responsibility of parents or carers to arrange and pay for transport at other times. For example, we do not provide transport for:
- medical appointments
- specific exam timetables
- pre-course visits or ‘taster’ days
- breakfast or after-school clubs
- parents’ evenings
- work experience or placement
- extra-curricular activities
- school trips or educational visits
- fixed-term exclusions
- off-site educational placements.
Independent or private schools (including nurseries)
Assistance is not given to children attending schools in the private sector unless:
-
the placement has been made by the Inclusion and Special Educational Needs & Disabilities team
-
transport has been recommended by a designated officer.
More than one home address
We only accept responsibility for the transport of children between their main residence and school. If children have more than one address, a decision needs to be made as to which address the children live. This would usually be where most school nights are spent but may include factors such as where the child is registered with a doctor, where the child benefit is paid to or which address was used when the school place was offered.
Family circumstances
When looking at eligibility for travel assistance, we cannot take the following factors into consideration: parent’s or carer’s working hours, parents or carers taking other children to other schools, or parents or carers looking after other children.
Denominational primary schools
There is no policy to support children attending a denominational church aided primary school for reasons of religion or faith.
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