To feel hopeless about school transport

[AmericasfavoritefightingFrenchman]

I’m thinking mostly about transport for pupils with disabilities- though I recognise the provision is poor all around. The fact that some counties refuse to transport the littlest reception children on the grounds that school is not compulsory, for instance, is just mean, stingy accounting at the expense of tiny children.

I’m thinking about the unreliability, about the sudden calls in the morning to say ‘no transport today’ which could leave a child stuck at home. And these are children who really can’t afford to miss a day at school, or who have a breakdown at the prospect of missing a day.

I’m thinking about the massive pressure to not be a minute late for meeting transport, applied to kids who actually deserve a medal for facing up to school at all, or to kids who have already gone through three changes of clothes and two showers trying to get ready for a 7am pick up.

Im thinking about kids spending 3-4 hours a day on transport just to get to and from school.

I’m thinking about the contracts that say that involuntary behaviour, if deemed unacceptable, is cause to terminate transport arrangements. Honestly that’s not very different from saying if a baby’s crying is distressing you’ll stop feeding it.

Sigh.

To be honest, I think it’s a parent’s responsibility to get their child to school, and it shouldn’t be the responsibility of the local authority at all.

Sure, there will be some special circumstances where it is appropriate for LA support to be given. But perhaps that support should be an enlarged Motability type funding programme, rather than coming out of the education support budget.

As someone who lives in a rural area, I really think it’s on me as a parent to work out (and pay for) how to get my kids to school, just as it’s on me to get myself to work. If I can’t get my kids to school because I live too far away, or work commitments make it difficult, that is my responsibility as a parent to resolve, not anyone else’s job.

We fortunately have a couple or primary’s and secondary’s here and a half decent bus service so I do think those parents should be getting their own children to school. Especially when they then move further away from the school.

Some of the behaviour however my friends child had witnessed on the little minibus is terrible. The police have had to be called out multiple times and then mum kicked off because the minibus drivers refused to pick up that child as it wasn’t safe. They even gave the parent and child free bus passes to use, continued to kick off till the bus company backed down. Second pick up child assaulted the supervisor adult and two children. Child now has to go in a taxi with parent and parent is still kicking off because she has to go as supervisor as the taxi staff wouldn’t take her alone due to threats.

I chose to live within walking distance of outstanding schools, I chose to live within walking distance of a train station to make commuting easy.

I didn’t choose to have a disabled child. I didn’t choose for the nearest suitable school to be 30+ miles away.
Our situations are completely different as with a disabled child the element of choice is taken away.

I have two children in different special schools. We used to go transport ourselves when we just had one child in school- this involved 2 hour long round trips every day. Now it is impossible so we are lucky to have fairly functional transport from the LEA.

I would love to be able to take my kids to school and for them to go to mainstream school. Try putting yourself in the position of parents with disabled children.

I’m inclined to agree with this

School transport exists for all children, not just sen children, if their nearest suitable school is over a certain distance. Rurally lots of children are on a school bus/coach.

Its just for sen children that is more likely to happen as there are less SEN schools and they also have a cant walk/use public transport extra category that might apply.

The reason it ends up taxis is you dont get a whole coach load from one village travelling to the school as SEN is more spread out.

Its very unlikely picking a specialist sport of music school would be considered the closest suitable school as suitable doesnt mean 'best' it means adequete. Very often the closest mainstream would mean no education for a child with sen, wheras for someone good at music it would still provide a normal education just not stretch in one area. Which isnt a basic right in the same way.

Some of us had to MOVE to be next to a school we deemed suitable. It's not ideal, it's not cheap, but that's what being a parent means.

You could argue that children living in the wrong catchment are hugely disadvantaged not to have access to the top school either.

I still think it's the parents responsibility, you can't dump everything on the LA to sort it for you.

We could argue about having suitable schools accessible closer, or to have school transport for everyone, that's true.

It's mad. I went to a Catholic school in the 90s with a large catchment area, council used to provide transport for free.

I know kids who go to the same school from the same town now. First council reduced funding, then cut it so parents would pay the whole cost (making the school de facto less inclusive).

Then council said they not only wouldn't fund it, they wouldn't manage the coach contract. No parent wanted to take that on so what had been a coach load of children turned into about 20 extra cars on the road, impacting parents' ability to work etc.

that's a better way to express what I was also trying to say!

I think op is talking about SEN transport. SEN schools have much bigger catchment areas and it's not so simple to move, especially if you have other kids in other schools.

Everything local authorities do is hopelessly underfunded, thanks to 14 years of central gov cutting budgets. I totally understand that SEN provision is hopeless and inadequate, and that has knock-on impacts such as the need to transport children long distances.

But, perhaps better funding for SEN transport might be possible if parents of non-SEN children were expected to step up and take responsibility for getting their kids to school?

I’ll happily agree that transport, like most of education, in underfunded and more or less broken. It does feel like such a stitch up though, a weird kind of bait and switch. Because people on the outside will say ‘wow! You get free transport to a special school for your disabled DC. That’s extraordinary! That’s so generous!’ Especially people from elsewhere in Europe. And the you feel like an ingrate for complaining at all. “My child has the opportunity to go to school after all! The transport is free! How could I be upset about that?!” When the truth is, the provision maybe available, it may be free, but that doesn’t mean it’s actually safely meeting the child’s needs.

Tbh I am incredibly grateful for school transport.my dd who has sen has been transported to her specialist school twice a day for nearly ten years. A journey of about 45 mins and I didn't pay until she was 16. I think that is pretty good. There has been one occasion in those ten years where transport has not arrived.

That sounds like a good run @cansu. We are just over two years in and already there have been two weeks’ worth of missed journeys, sometimes with only 15 minutes notice.

I didn't realise this was a widespread issue. We've had problems with the school transport this year. The bus of kids doesn't get to school until 9.30, so they've been missing their first lessons since September. There are too many kids on each bus, and some children are on the bus for 5 hours a day. It's really not acceptable for children with SEN to have to endure sitting on school transport for that amount of time, and arrive to school late every day. I've written to the council and the MP. I don't know what more I can do.

I live 10 minutes walk from a special school. It didn't have a place in suitable provision for Ds2 either in year 7 or in 6th form, so he goes to the second nearest special school, which, to be honest, we preferred so we're not sad about it.

Even if we moved right next door to his current school, that would have done nothing to reduce DS1's 50 mile journey to the closest school to meet his particular needs. We would now also be in a position where Ds1 would be less able to take advantage of opportunities available to help him to become a little more independent as a young adult, as where we are is very central with good transport links.

At no point, when we were starting a family, did we decide that it would be nice to be a bit different and have children with disabilities. We already have to deal with a shit ton of stuff that parents of children without disabilities don't without still being expected to take our teenagers to school because they cannot safely travel alone.

Yes, the US has school buses but they also have barely any pavements, it’s very unusual to live within walking distance of school, and plus the whole your kid getting shot dead once they get to school thing.. let’s not rush to wish we were like them 😳

Local authority budgets are stretched, there is usually an obligation to go for the cheapest tender, and driving be it a taxi, bus or indeed a lorry is not seen as a high value career. Indeed it's probably a second or even lower choice for those who do it.

I’m so sorry to hear that @Flufferblub, it’s really not ok for kids who are going to struggle more to access education anyway to be subjected to the extra fatigue of a journey like that and to be missing lessons. I hope you get a useful reply.

We're supposed to be grateful for the crumbs we get. It's shocking. No way would parents in mainstream school put up with this

There are a lot of problems with school transport for children at special schools but I don’t think everything you’ve said is entirely fair.

They have to try and make sure the children are on time for pick up because they often have more than one child to collect, it’s not fair to keep others waiting, especially if their disability makes waiting difficult. The escorts don’t get paid overtime if they work extra hours to cover lateness.

It’s also fair if unacceptable behaviour, even if involuntary, means that a contract has to be terminated. The safety of the other people in the bus or taxi has to take priority over anything else.

My son is in a special school, it's an hour drive to get there, he has a younger brother in the local mainstream. It's not my fault that the only suitable school involves 4hours of driving. I cam drive if necessary, but would literally be spending half my day going back and forth and would have no-one to take the younger child to/from school

have you seen the state of the "mainstream" education? What funding do you think exist today, having a qualified teacher is becoming a luxury.

"mainstream" gets the same crumbs.

It's not an excuse, but it's not a suitable or acceptable situation for anyone.

I did move. Back to my home county for more family support and more SEN schools generally. The school is still out of county.

Making more expensive choices just to get 1 school that can meet needs which will even offer her a place is in no way the same as parents of NT children moving to be in the catchment area of a school considered advantageous for NT children. It just isn't.

It was also the LA who approached my DD's school and consulted with them, therefore absolutely it's on them to sort transport. Of course I'm grateful but my preference, funnily enough, would have been to do the school run myself. It just isn't feasible.

Im thinking about kids spending 3-4 hours a day on transport just to get to and from school.

Unless that is unavoidable (which is unlikely) any council that has transport arrangements that entail children spending 3-4 hours a day travelling to and from school is acting unlawfully. The statutory guidance says that the maximum journey time for primary aged children should be 45 minutes each way, and for secondary aged 75 minutes each way.

Longer journeys tend to happen when councils make children share minibuses or taxis, and arrange long journeys picking them up and dropping them off. If that takes them over the maximum time limits, they should split the route and put two vehicles onto it.