School transport appeal

[Wizotto]

DD 7 gets free school transport. The policy has now changed and we have been told that DS who starts school in Sept is not eligible as he does not go to the nearest school. The nearest school is not our catchment school so we would not get a place. Also, we would not want one child to attend one school and the other one a different school. There is no safe route to either school as one only has access next to an A road and the other is usually under water a few weeks a year. The bus provided has more seats than are used for each journey. However, the council is saying that siblings cannot buy the spaces even though the bus usually has seats free for each journey and we could easily prioritise the children entitled to the space over others as we have to list everyone going on the bus each day anyway. This does not make sense from an environmental perspective or a funding perspective to me. Any ideas about whether we could appeal this or what to do?

Did you put your nearest school down and got declined? If you didn't you need to make it clear their legal entitlement is transport to your nearest suitable school - then you'll need to prove the nearest isn't suitable as you wouldn't have got a place if you'd applied so find out what the furthest distance offered was.

I thought the absolute entitlement was to the nearest school which could have offered you a place. You say this is not your nearest school, but are there others which are closer than the one you preferred?

It's not the nearest but we applied to the catchment school which all other children in the village attend.

So did you apply to ALL your nearest schools and this was the nearest you got a place at?

I applied for 3 schools with the catchment one as first choice. I did not apply for the nearest school as I thought the main criterion was being in the right catchment. One of the others was nearer though. However, all of the nearer schools get flooded and inaccessible via the quick route for a few weeks a year. It also did not occur to me that the council would want to have to provide transport to two different schools.

If you didn't apply to your nearest school I'm afraid you may not be entitled to free transport. If you can prove that you wouldn't have got a place at your nearest school even if you had applied you may be able to persuade the council. So, for example, if all the places at your nearest school went to children living in catchment you can argue that you would have missed out anyway. But if it turns out you would have got a place had you applied to your nearest school you don't have a case. Sorry.

Thanks. That's helpful.