What am I supposed to do RE School?

[Soubriquet]

We no longer have a car. We cannot afford to replace it either which means we can no longer get the dc to school.

dd has council transport but it’s from the local town rather than our actual destination, which means she has to get the 7am bus, to get into town, in order to catch her 8am bus to school. Then the reverse happens and she doesn’t get home will gone 5. Purely because of the times plus it’s going to cost us £15 a week!!

ds on the other hand is still at primary school and his school is not in any form of walking distance, nor is there a bus that goes that way. The council has also declined us for transport (which I will appeal) because it’s not the nearest school. I’m aware it isn’t the nearest but he’s in year 6! Am I really supposed to transfer schools for 5 months, fork out for new uniforms, and uproot a child who is on the ECHP and SEN plan at his school? Where they know how to handle him?

It’s a bloody nightmare. He’s been absent the last two days because we genuinely cannot get him to school!!

We are in the process of talking to both schools to see if we can come up with a solution

Hope it works out for you OP. I have no advice, but can sympathise because I’m completely reliant on my car!

For those doubting OP. I live in a rural area and housing is a massive issue. I work in this area, and had a family that thankfully were able to secure a private rental at the last minute, but if they hadn’t then they’d be looking at a being temporarily housed in a B&B 100 miles away! It’s desperate and people have to take what housing they can get.

We do have a secondary school in our nearest town that the children get the bus to. The next nearest school would be 30 miles away. Thankfully primary schools are closer.

When did it become the government/ councils job to take kids to and from school, feed them breakfast and lunch?
I had to go on the bus, quarter of a mile walk to the bus stop. 4 miles on the bus. A mile walk at the other end. Same home. It took about 45 minutes to an hour. I paid bus fare at children's rate. My sister travelled about 15 miles to school, 2 buses and a good walk at each end. She paid bus fare too. My parents weren't wealthy but they instilled the importance of school attendance into us.
We drove My offspring to school. The school was 6 miles away. The only transport was the school bus, which wasn't reliable. I was forever giving lifts to kids who'd missed the bus.
6 miles there, 6 miles home, 6 miles back to collect, 6 miles home added up to 24 miles a day = 120 a week. Petrol paid out of my own pocket. No, we weren't rich either.
Our council is verging on bankruptcy. One of the reasons is because of the squillions that they spend on school taxis. Council tax is going up nearly 10% to cover it.

Then that is your problem, not the local taxpayers. So what is your beef?

I’ve got nothing to add apart from I wanted to give you solidarity and hope you figure it out.

we have a car, but it’s super old, and we’re in a similar situation that when/if this one finally gives up we won’t have a car and have no means to replace it - so I fully understand and some of the previous posters on here are lucky that they seem to not understand there are a lot of us in this precarious financial situation these days.

Dunno about the rest but school meals have been a thing since 1906.

The Provision of Meals Act 1906.

Re DD I think you are getting some replies from people who are not familiar with the nuance when parents apply to local schools in good faith and councils allocate their children further away. This is fundamentally different from a situation where the family has chosen to send the child to a further away school.

How long is her total journey time? If it's significantly over, I think, 75 mins you should go back to the LA transport team and say that is too long a journey and illegal. Some parents might choose longer journeys for their children, and that is up to them, but here if the council's cost cutting measure is adding an extra 2 hours daily to her journey that is disproportionate, and I believe there are legal max journey times they need to adhere to under duty of care.

They are not choosing to live there ,their ex land lord wanted their house back and now they are living in a housing association house
I doubt they deliberately decided to move to a house that is so far away from either school.

Taking kids to and from school has been the council's job for children who are not within walking distance of the school since the Second World War.

Free lunches for children from poorer families have also been around for decades.

If you did not get free transport, it was either because your parents didn't send you to the nearest school or they chose not to take up your entitlement to free transport.

Have you looked into motability benefits if you are on DLA and/or PIP?

Brava. Were you disabled and unable to work? Did you have a disabled / SEN child?

Thought not. Your post is irrelevant to the OP’s .

They probably can't afford to move house.

Even if they could, it would mean probably an insecure private rental which is the reason why they were forced to move further away in the first place as the landlord wanted their house back.

They now have an housing association property which clearly isn't the perfect location but it's secure and they aren't going to get turfed out as long as they pay their rent.

The point at which the LA is no longer responsible is when they can provide a place at a nearer suitable school. If they can't, they must provide free transport no matter how far away the parents move.

Example of a school offer 20 miles away

https://www.wisbechstandard.co.uk/news/24157211.cambridgeshire-mums-shock-secondary-school-offer/

Motability isn't guaranteed just because of DLA/PIP. One of them would need to be claiming the high rate mobility element.

It also isn't free and often involves a hefty advanced payment which they probably can't afford even if someone does claim high rate mobility.

@HarshbutTrue2 it became the council's job to get their daughter to school when they failed to provide her a place at the nearer schools.

@prh47bridge so if there are spaces in closer suitable schools they wouldn’t have to provide transport?

I agree with every word of this. There are avenues to approach for support.

The local Lions group might be able to help you out with some funding
I hope you manage to get it sorted.

Nobody is going to suggest that a child with EHCP in a named school should change school halfway through Y6, with SATs looming, so there should be support with transport. There will be a lot of feet dragging to negotiate along the way though.

OP, that's a nightmare for you!

Your options - speak to DS's school. There may well be transport options you're not aware if, given that the school wasn't a choice by you. Particularly with only a few months left.
DD probably just has to put up with it. I had a similarl at that age (on a school bus, nearest catchment school, but v rural). Left at 7.30am, back at 5pm. It was the crap social life that was bad, not the school journey time.

Living rurally without a car is very hard, unless there's a bus service of some sort. Where we are now, there's an (unreliable) bus every 2 hours into the nearest town, so its not dreadful but a real pita if you have to get somewhere on time. So whilst having HoA is great, perhaps look at a swap to somewhere busier?

We don’t know that the LA can’t provide an alternative school, only that the OP doesn’t want to move him in year 6. Which is understandable, but not the LA’s problem.

If it turns out the LA can’t provide an alternative school then fine, I dare say OP will win her appeal. But if they can offer one, then OP will be faced with a difficult decision. There will be other people in similar positions to the OP, each with their own personal reasons for wanting to stay at the same school. The LA can’t be seen to single out one of those for special treatment above the rest.

DD’s day sounds fine to me. Especially if she can take a bike…

but your current setup unfortunately really doesn’t sound sustainable without a car. It seems to me as if you need to somehow get a car or try to move. Is there anyone that could lend you the money?

Well.it kind of is the L/A,s problem as the school is named in the EHCP.

If only things were so simple.....

If any of those schools were suitable, they would've been named on the EHCP in the first place.

LA's don't name a school so far away without good reason.