To not want the Council to make my son late for school?

[JKSLtd]

OK, it's not quite that straightforward but...

DS2 gets a bus to his SN school.
(Originally they picked him up last)
Then they changed to pick him up first as they realised I was always ready & waiting for them, with DS1 (now 7) & DD (now 2.5) in the car. They asked if it would be better to get DS2 earlier, it was, so they did.
All was fine.

Now they've had the rules 'tightened' and they must pick up in order of 'near-ness' to school. DS2 is closest to school so must be the last pickup. This means that DS1 will always be late for his school. DD doesn't have to be in until a bit later (pre-sch) for now but will eventually be made late too.

We've asked if they can't do like last year and been told it's against the rules, and meanwhile the (lovely) driver is in trouble for changing her route last year :(

They think that DS2 will be on the bus for too long if he's picked up first (max is 45mins, and it would be about that).
But...he was perfectly happy with this last year.

We are happy for him to be on the bus that long.
He is happy to be on the bus that long.
The driver is happy to pick him up first.
The bus company is happy to pick him up first.

The Council seems to be in charge of the transport and refuses to change the order.
We can appeal (and in the middle of loads of paperwork) but have already been told it probably will be refused as it's not on medical grounds.
Also told that 'it's a free service, you don't have to use it, you can take him to school yourself or arrange childcare/breakfast club for the other children'
(DS1 & DD's school do not have a breakfast club and anyway even if it did, I would have to take DS2 with me to drop them off then home for the bus, which would be ridiculous and have him in a car/bus for longer anyway.)
I can't take him to school myself as the times are the same as DS1.

So, the Council are determined to make at least one of my children late for school every day.
(Oh, btw DH is away with work most of the week, of course on the rare days he's here/still here at sch run time he will help out).

What can I say to help them change their minds??

Sorry this is too long, I hope you've made it to the end!

I'm not sure that I agree with you that bending for every family would be crazy tbh. Within reason, if they can juggle the 5 or so families on each bus then why not fiddle about with the route/timings a bit.
It's a service not a punishment.

And it worked fine all last year with DS2 being picked up first. None of the other families complained or I'd have been told. The bus company is happy to make this very simple change and they wouldn't be if there were other problems to be caused by it.

Oh and WireCat - good luck fighting your way through it. You learn that everything becomes a battle & you have to find some hidden reserves of strength.

We've been summonsed in for a meeting with some senior council people....eek! Trying to arrange a good time before the panel meets next wed.

Popius - that's how it all used to work so much better. The taxi guide / driver would know al the children (s)he picked up and all the families (s)he picked up from, and would have these conversations. If one family wanted to change things a bit, they'd check with any other families it might impact upon. School staff also used to be able to work with the driver / guide to make life a little bit easier for everyone concerned.
Why on earth should a family be having to pay out for a babysitter each morning, when there is a hassle free, cost free way of resolving the issue that everyone who is actually involved on a daiiy basis is happy with ? It just doesn't make sense.

Have spoken to DS1's Head & DS2's Head today, and the bus driver & escort & the bus company boss.

DS1's Head will email the Council lady saying he doesn't want DS1 to be late, esp with his dyslexia, he needs all the organisational help he can get with his school day, so missing morning 'setup' will be bad.

DS2's Head mostly said; why are they making a problem where there wasn't one? Sensible lady!

I was in this position for a while, dd who was a ms was allowed by her school to be taken early and join the breakfast club, she would take a book and read or late where she would go straight through the office. I would then be back home to send ds2 for transport to SS or take her after. I have always found the MS more than helpful, she was also allowed to leave school 5 mins early for the end. I hate being reliant on another mum.

Hi I feel your pain, I am in the same boat. At the moment it's on cos my older son is doing a sports club at 8 but that's only 4 weeks. I am already forking out for an after school club so there's a safe gap between bus arrival and collecting my other son. I think my sons school will accept him being a few mins late but I don't want him to stand out and people will make judgements which is unfair on him.

I feel for you OP, I was in this exact situation a couple of years ago.

The only solution for us was me taking all the children to my DS2's school early where DS2 would sit with the head teacher until school started, then go home and wait for DS1's bus. It was a complete nightmare as DS1 has severe ASD and is prone to running off, he has no sense of danger either and there were lots of very busy roads on our route.

We moved house so DS1 now has a different bus and it works fine for us, thank goodness.

I don't see why the council can't pick up your DS first, given that all other parties are happy to do so. It would've been fine in our case too as the drive lived a couple of streets away from us so not out of his way at all but the council were bloody jobsworths.

Have arranged meeting with council people for tues so hopefully sense will be seen and we can come of the agenda for the wed panel.

I understand the point that two children could be at different schools anyway but I don't think it applies here.

Two children at diff schools, then you have the option to move one to the other school. You don't. Your sn child can't go to a mainstream nor the other way round.

I do know of a mother who had these problems and called for an early review as the school was no longer suitable as school transport to the local special school could not be provided at a time to ensure all her children could safely be taken to school. She was requesting a change in part 4 to a special school further away. The la sorted transport the same day.

Thought I'd come back and update as I know it's annoying to never hear the end.

So, we were called to a meeting at the Council with some senior figures and they saw sense so he's being picked up first again & phew!

Don't think they'd realised how stressful the whole thing was.
As a result of our meeting they are restructuring the process so that there's an intermediary stage for minor adjustments that don't need to go to Panel for discussion.

So, for the many other parents at DS2's school that I know would not have coped with all the bureaucracy BS they can at least now just say to their driver/escort (who they see at the door every day) what they want and the driver can pass it along for recommendation (if it suits and works obv).

DS2's Head is almost embarrassingly grateful for us going through the process to help others in the future.

Annoying Jobsworths will also be spoken to about how to deal with the public...ha! (I didn't mention names specifically but enough detail for them to find out exactly who we spoke to).

All in all, A Good Ending. And it changed straight away so he's been first on the bus a few days now. Thank goodness.

Glad you got it sorted. Common sense prevails!

Oh that's good news. Well done for your efforts and Hurray for common sense.

Well done OP.

Good news.

Well done