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.

Last year was awful for us. I had DD1 in a special college 12 miles away. I had DD2 in a special school 20 miles away, but in the opposite direction. The transport for DD1 was unsafe but the LA couldn't offer safe transport. They wouldn't take DD2 because she was too anxious to attend full time.

The LA's 'solution' was to give me a mileage allowance. The fact that it meant that I was driving for 5 hours per day, didn't matter to them.

My understanding was that, unfortunately, the recommended maximum journey times are merely recommendations and thus not unlawful if the council can claim that a particular journey length is unavoidable. At any rate, I got no joy when my primary aged child had a 90 minute journey plus a 75-90 minute return journey, even though the other passengers were secondary aged and the pick up order could have been reversed to mostly solve the problem.

I also had the council prefer to give my child a 90+ minute return journey so that the other passenger’s journey was kept to 40 minutes, rather than give my child a 30-35 minute journey and the other passenger 45-50 minutes, which would have been a shorter route overall. 10 minutes’ gain for one child at the expense of nearly an hour lost to the other 🤷‍♀️

Perhaps our council is just exceptionally bad at this.

I think it’s totally unacceptable for children to spend 3 hours a day in a taxi 5 days a week. Most adults would struggle with that commute. These are our most vulnerable children. The weakest and most disadvantaged. And who will help us? We are the ones up hours before school to “make it work” and who deal with the aftermath for hours after school.

I think I needed this thread tonight, currently awaiting news on transport for DS10 (SEN) who, because of a change to his needs now requires an emergency health care plan. He has been off school 3 weeks so far, the school is being exceptionally wonderful- as always, making sure everybody was on the same page about my sons needs and care plan, all the chasing up paperwork and adjusting EHCP, the phone calls to anybody involved with looking after, treating or transportation of him. Kept me in the loop throughout- only to hit a blank wall with transport. Nearly 2 and a half hours each school day spent on transport, and without a medically trained escourt he can't be on the bus due to possibly needing emergency medication. Transport told school that it could take up to 4 months to sort, can I just okay it for him to come and if anything happens they will call an ambulance. I asked transport what the plan was, I was told its not their job to provide a medically trained escourt and I had to call the council. The company we had last year were good, steady, safe and agreeable, but the company this year have already changed both staff twice without notice, are unreliable and do not seem warm or friendly with the children. And now this, I don't drive and its the nearest school in our catchment ( there is a nearer school but under a different council so was rejected).

@SacAMain
My daughter has DS. The only school that would accept her is 1 hr away by car.
Most children are able to go to the catchment school, which is usually close by.
Would I love my child to be able to go to mainstream like her peers? Of course I would but I do not have that choice.
We are also rural and there's also a bus put on for non-sen students.

Children who attend special schools (often a distance away) often have siblings attending their local schools. Which child/children is the parent supposed to take to school?

The nearest school that could accept my DD's wheelchair is 35 minutes drive away. The one opposite my house has no classrooms on a groundfloor level and no lift facilities. She could get to the school office, the gym hall and the dining hall, but nowhere else.

The nearest school that can cope with her needs, and had space, in 50 minutes away in morning traffic. She passes 3 other nearer schools on the way. Why should that be my responsibility to get her there when I'm not the one that built a school with no accessible classrooms?

Have you entered an appeal against their failure to arrange safe transport? You should also point out to the SEN department that if your child can't get to school because of this failure, they will also be in breach of their duty to ensure that his SEN are met and that he receives full time education. You could also ask SOS SEN to organise a formal pre-action letter threatening judicial review action.
https://sossen.org.uk/whats-judicial-review/

I've been through this OP and it is a minefield especially when trying to get your child to school and you to work or wherever you need to be. I found building a good relationship with both the transport company and the transport dept in the local LA was really helpful

@passepartoute you utter minefield of wonderful knowledge, thank you! my to do list on Monday is this- very grateful

I must admit the sen transport for my son has mostly been amazing.
They always text if they are running late there or back (don't happen to often).
I text them if there is a problem my end as well so having that communication is important.

I do get I'm lucky (or should I say this is how it should for all children).

School transport round here (v rural) is crap. The minute you get over 16 you have to pay. Our nearest school is 7 miles away and DS was at it from Y7 to Y13. There was literally nowhere nearer that he could have gone - and so he had to get a bus.

For the whole of Y12 and Y13 we were expected to pay £570 per year. That's a lot of money for most families - particularly as he HAD to be in education. If he'd gone to 6th form college the nearest one is 35 miles away - and would have cost an awful lot more.

I'd go further than that, every school or small group of local schools have a SEND base attached so that pupils can go to a local school and still get the support that they need.
Op I completely agree with your concern having spent most of the day dealing with the fall out of children with behaviours associated with their SEND being left dysregulated and in danger/a danger to others as a result.
The main issue for us is that escorts are poorly paid, completely untrained and unwilling to use any strategies to manage behaviour.
They expect the kids to sit quietly and stare out of the window and if they don't do that the escorts shout at them...then down the track the escorts complain to us that the kids are unmanageable on the bus, the parents complain that their kids are crying about the bus, the kids behaviour deteriorates in school and we have little to no power to fix any of it.
It's incredibly frustrating.

I am so sorry @Heaviestdirtyestsoul that is awful. Have you tried speaking to your MP? Getting your son’s consultant ti write a stern letter if he would? I can’t imagine either would sway my council but I’m not sure what else you could try. Sending you so much sympathy and ‘permission’ to rant about it as much as you like.

How do you imagine that will work if you have two kids in teo.different schools
My don has always gone to.a special school ,I can't just decide to send him to the nearest school as his needs are very complex
When he and my oldest son were both in primary school the schools were several miles apart and they both had to be there at the same time
Luckily he's always been provided with transport ,but can you imagine trying to get two children too two different schools miles apart at the same time?

It is a minefield. I’d appreciate any tips on how to build a good relationship in either department! Our council transport team are often friendly enough on the phone but never take the actions they promise. Then if you call and say ‘why’ they are full of excuses but still don’t do it. If you take a firm tone and say it’s ‘unacceptable’ or if you get upset and say ‘we’re desperate it needs to be sorted’ they say you sound ‘angry’ which is verbally abusive and so they terminate the call and still don’t do it…

Transport companies have been variable. Our current one is great but others have been opaque or downright unkind.

You have no clue do you🙄🙄
I didn't choose to have a disabled child I didn't choose what school.to.send him to the LEA choose the school.that could best meet his needs which is a,special school for children with severe and profound learning disabilities.

School transport is absolutely shocking in this country. On a recent trip to New York we were most bemused by the yellow buses dropping kids off in Manhattan at their different apartment buildings. Yes, we’d seen them in other parts of the US but we were not expecting it in a city with a subway system! We live in a rural area. The only school bus goes to the nearest school which is seven miles away but my DS1 goes to the state grammar eight miles in the other direction. There is no bus whatsoever, not even a public bus as that doesn’t start until 9.00am so we have no option but to drive him. It’s our biggest use of the car. A proper school bus system would be the easiest way to get cars off the road and would be far better for the environment.

We are currently applying for DS2’s secondary school place. He won’t be going to the grammar because it is super selective and we knew he wasn’t strong enough academically to have a chance of getting in. We would like to send him to the nearest Catholic comp (he’s at a Catholic primary school). But there’s no school bus to that school, although there is a bus to a different secondary school in the same town but he can’t get into that school because he didn’t go to our local state primary which is a feeder school for that secondary. We would have to drive him to a different village 15 minutes away to get on that school bus despite the fact that there is another school bus going from our village to that town. Unfortunately the Catholic school is a 30 min walk away from the other secondary school so he wouldn’t get to school on time if he took that bus. It’s a farce!

This is so obtuse. This sentence particularly galling

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

What do you think I CAN reasonably expect from the LA for my child?

To be safe?
An education?
Access to dentists and healthcare?

Because NONE of that is automatic for my disabled child. My child was both numerate and literate in reception, but I have had to stand up in meetings with the LA to force them to provide maths and English lessons. How dare you sit there hogging the fucking resources my taxes pay for suggesting ANYONE with a disabled child is able to dump anything on the LA or anyone else? You should be ashamed of yourself and your “let them eat cake” attitude. WAKE UP.

If it's all the parents' responsibility, I do hope that school you moved next to is an independent one? Otherwise you are dumping your children's education onto an LA or a state-funded academy to sort for you.

The schools are not arranging transport for my children?

The schools are not even arranging transports for sports tournament, mandatory swimming lessons or any non-school ground activity... which is a non-issue and no-one is complaining, but bringing children to anything is the parents responsibility.

My tax pay for free education, which we have, not for free transport, free food, free activities or free uniform.

The lack of trained teachers is getting a worry, the lack of school coaches not the priority. Private schools supply them for those who think that's an important element.

My husband's taxes pay for education too but our DD has been out of school since last December through no fault of our own.

Transport for SEN children has nothing to do with non school activities and everything to do with getting them the education that they have a right to.

Not investing in SEN children will just lead to a sizeable demographic who might have been lead relatively independent lives had they just gotten the same investment as NT kids

You don't get to choose what your tax pays for

The schools are not even arranging transports for sports tournament, mandatory swimming lessons or any non-school ground activity... which is a non-issue and no-one is complaining, but bringing children to anything is the parents responsibility.
and my child has never been to a sports tournament, can no longer have swimming lessons (private) because the local leisure centres don’t provide a disabled swimming session any more, and hasn’t done any non school ground activity for 7 years. In fact he didnt have a school for large parts of his education, and NO we are not some mythical slobs who can’t be arsed to get out of bed for school. In fact my other children are extremely successful academically. It’s NOT the case that we did it wrong, or are arsey, or lazy, or feckless. What happened is one of my children didn’t learn to talk for years and needs constant supervision to keep him safe. There’s no reason for that and it’s nothing we or he did or failed to do.

@Zzizzisnotzeproblem

You can't have a suitable school for every child in every town because needs are so diverse. My dd was recommended to a autism unit because she was struggling in mainstream but no way could she cope with the noise and violence from the other pupils - we fought and won specialist provision within mainstream school, the first student they had with this arrangement, and only worked because she was self motivated and happy to be at the back of the school office