School bus service withdrawn for out of catchment pupils

[wigglybeezer]

My kids attend a secondary school out of catchment in the next county and now that county council has decided to stop the bus service my boys use to get to school ( we pay bus fares as out of catchment pupils are not entitled to free school transport). They are going to run a bus on the same route but no fare paying pupils will be allowed on it! I think they are trying to put people off applying for out of catchment places in a very underhand, dodgy way and they announced this one week before the end of term. I am fuming.

It could be that the bus if actually full of catchment children.

Our LA's policy is that out of catchment fare paying pupils can go on the bus providing the bus had spaces. For a while our school has been under subscribed so most of the buses had spaces, but now there's enough children in catchment for a full bus so no out of catchment pupils can go on.

They would only be able to use the bus with a school bus pass, which they would not be issued as they live out of catchment.
The bus is not too full
I suspect the council is trying to discourage people making placing requests as this school has had a major increase in applications over the last two years.
That's why I think it is dodgy.
Small country town/ village so no viable alternative public transport available. Grrr

It's a school time only service serving a countryside catchment area so they have to run a bus due to the commitment to provide transport to pupils who live in catchment but further than two miles away. However there are too many pupils to manage with a minibus ( they use a double decker ATM). I don't understand how losing the fare paying passengers will make the service more economical!

wigglybeezer,
could I suggest that you call the LAs bluff and tell them that you expect a good reason for this late change in policy in writing within the next 7 days, as you believe that the LA as the admission authority is discriminating against out of county pupils. If you do not get an appropriate explanation then you will be reporting the situation to the schools adjudicator.
It seems totally bizarre that the have a bus which is not full on the route. I wonder whether somebody in the transport department is making a jobsworth decision without realising that by removing the opportunity to travel on the bus they are disadvantaging pupils with a place at the school and discriminating against potential new pupils.

This happened to a relatively popular school just over the county border from us. One of the mothers then contracted with a local company to run a minibus service in its place. She has been running it for some years but will only do so while her own children are at the school - maybe another 2 years. No idea what will happen then.

There used to be a public bus which ran between this town and went past the school, but Stagecoach withdrew it at about the same time the school bus was stopped.

Who is actually going to be on this bus. Surely everyone who lives beyond you is also out of catchment?

If the school is an academy the LA may wash their hands of it - the Academy will be buying in to the different levels of school transport service

Its in Scotland, so no academy issue. The bus goes in a loop through villages that are in catchment but the bend in the loop is a village just out of catchment where it stops at the moment and picks up the out of catchment kids (we have to drive four miles to drop them off there). It is now not going to stop there or let us on even if we took dropped the kids off even nearer the school. They are doing this with three different routes even though numbers using the buses are going up.
They have left it til the last week of term to tell us this, making it difficult to organise a minibus because of all parties going on holday etc.(enquiries in the past did not come up with a local firm able to take it on but we might have more luck this time).
I just hate how choices are offered but then they make it very difficult for you to actually take them up.
Hope that makes sense.
Not really expecting any solutions, just wanted to moan!

. They are going to run a bus on the same route but no fare paying pupils will be allowed on it!

Er I'm confused, are they running the bus out of catchment?

I think the reason they ae running transport out of catchment is that they are obliged to do so IF the authority allocated the child to that school.

The difference is that there is no LA obligation to provide a transport service (whether you pay or not) if YOU have chosen to go to a school a distance away when there were closer places available.

OP of course kick up a stink, try to local paper etc but I don't think you have a legal leg to stand on.

Parents paying for a mini bus taxi sounds like an excellent solution

I think you can apply for a privilege bus pass- my brother is in a very similar situation.

It's an accident of the road system that the bus route passes through the out of catchment area, they have never run it to collect out of catchment pupils on purpose but they let the kids on if they payed the fare, they have decided to close the loophole, even though the amount of money the company collects in fare adds up to quite a lot over the year.

Local authorities here don't allocate out of catchment places, it is an option for parents if they want to ( ie the school over the border gets better results).

I know we don't have a legal leg to stand on , it justs seems a bit petty of the council to do this.

TalkinPeace2 - No the LA cannot wash their hands of it. Home to school transport is the LA's responsibility regardless of whether or not the school is an academy.

Wigglybeezer - I agree with Admission. Call their bluff and threaten to refer the matter to the Schools Adjudicator. It sounds like you may have a legal leg to stand on. They are potentially discriminating against out of county pupils which is not allowed.

You are wrong TalkinPeace2, the LEA provide school transport for Academies. It is one (of many) areas they retain responsibility for when a school converts.

Kez100 That's interesting as our school is trying to alter the contract with the bus company "now that its an Academy" - that being the justification for the timetable change they have pushed through as well.

Straight from the DfE website
6
Local authority services

The following items do not become the responsibility of the academy and continue to rest with the local authority. These are:　
?home to school transport (including SEN)
? education psychology, SEN statementing and assessment
? monitoring of SEN provision, parent partnerships, etc.
? prosecution of parents for non-attendance
? individually assigned SEN resources for pupils with rare conditions needing expensive tailored provision (this is usually a top-up to formula funding)
? provision of pupil referral units or education otherwise for a pupil who is no longer registered at an academy.
^

Hmmm, but that list does not fit with what Cory found at the sponsored Academy near her. They made it clear they had no interest in SEN.
And it does not tally with what the school are saying about buses - but then academy heads seem to be getting delusions of grandeur at the moment!