Will LEA school transport help my autistic son or make him feel less integrated?

[Wacawaca19]

He’s in reception. He’s happy at school. I’ve been getting him in myself but have a younger child i will soon need to get to nursery elsewhere and then school. I’ve been offered transport. My worries are:

1. They won’t know how to manage his anxiety on bus
2. The transport will make his autism visible to others in a way it is not otherwise.
3. He will feel “ special”
4. I won’t be doing my bit as a mum and he’ll feel left out somehow

The reasons it would help:

1. He likes school buses although he says he doesn’t want to go in one.
2. Clashes of timing to get younger child elsewhere
3. He can be difficult and controlling with me making mornings hard but wouldn’t be with bus driver .

I find it really hard to trust people around my son. I really don’t want this to institutionalise him in any way. Can anyone tell me of their experience post it I’ve or negative with a child with asd getting school transport?

Talk to the transport co or school authorities, ask to meet the bus driver and explain any major triggers for your ds.
Can they allocate him a seat near the driver? Is there anyone on the bus that your son is friendly with?
Take him on a bus regularly at the weekend so he gets used to the layout and the feel of it.
Make sure he knows where to get off the bus - my NT ds stayed on the bus past his stop in year 7, and apparently it happens every year.

were we are (lon borough) they usually have a few kids on the bus, so there is a route for the school based on where they are picking kids up from
the staff are usually very friendly and get to know the kids
they look like minbuses not big school buses .
the chances are the other kids wont really notice how he arrives...or he will be arriving with others..
getting transport is like hens teeth so would be loathe to give it up!
talk to the transport team about how you and they can manage transition...maybe a visiual timetable ?
would'nt go for fixed seat as what if they change teh vehicle - another kid wants the same seta etc.... it won't institionalise him just enable you to know he's safely being transported to school

Unless there are quite a few children getting LA transport to the same school I'd expect him to be in a taxi rather than a bus. Even at my son's, admittedly small, special school, where almost all the children are on transport, most of the transport is 3 or 4 children in each vehicle. As well as the driver, each taxi also has an escort to help the children and keep them calm and safe on the journey. He had the same escort and driver all year, but we had a few changes of driver this year.

Ours are all given an allocated seat at the start of the year, I hate to think of the arguments over who sits where otherwise!

Biggest issue in terms of getting another child anywhere is the unpredictability of when the taxi gets here. In theory we are given a time, but with traffic it can vary quite a lot. There's also the issue of the taxi not being able to wait if he's having a difficult morning, although so far our difficult mornings have been because the t I is running late!