Lea refusing to issue free bus pass

[vjg13]

Has anyone any experience with this? My daughter has just started y7 in a faith school more than 3 miles from home. The LEA normally issues a free pass but has refused my daughter's application. This is due to not attending a feeder school.

We had a poor experience with the feeder primary when my older disabled daughter attended and she had to leave because they could not meet her needs. We made the decision to send my younger daughter to local primary knowing she could later attend the faith high school.

The Lea are meant to be reviewing the application and if this is unsuccessful we can appeal later in the year.

Where we live, you are only granted school transport or free bus passes if your catchment school is more than 3 miles away. If your child attends another school then you are solely responsible for arranging/paying for transport.

I don't agree with faith schools but it does sound unfair if the rules have been changed at such short notice. I know the LEA doesn't have any legal requirement to provide bus passes if you choose a more distant school though so I don't think you can make them.

The law is that the LA must provide free transport if the school is over 3 miles away by the shortest safe walking route and it is the nearest school with places available. If there are other non-faith schools nearer home and you did not apply for them the LA is not required to provide free transport.

If you are entitled to free school meals the rules are a little different. The qualifying distance is then 2 miles rather than 3 and you are entitled to free transport to the nearest school chosen on faith grounds provided there are no nearer schools of that faith and it is no more than 15 miles from home.

The LA can choose to provide free transport beyond the basic legal requirements but they can change their policy if they wish. Very few LAs are providing anything beyond the minimum legal requirement these days. If your LA has changed its policy it is unlikely you can do anything about it provided it is still complying with the law.

OP, does the faith school discriminate against children applying that are not of that faith? Are the the pupils selected according to a faith criteria?
Can you persuade me that the state (or society) should finance schools that discriminate against children? Children have no say in their faith, or that of their parents, after all.

Thanks prh47bridge, the school is over 3 miles but is nearest school for that faith. It is also in next LEA. In previous years all pupils have been given a bus pass. The confusion has arisen this year because the school told us we would get a free pass and the LEA has altered the policy after the application closing date for the pass. Had I read the new policy before I filled in the form I would probably have not applied. I think my grounds for the appeal will be the late change of policy following the closing date. Ironically the local council are advertising the service in local press and commenting on low take up this year!

I understand that many people on here disagree with the whole premise of faith schools and it can very emotive but this was just a question about policy for school transport.

Thanks for all comments.

I was under the impression that faith wasn't a reason to get a free bus pass so I am surprised to read this thread. My Dd is at a selective school and is not entitled to a bus pass as it is not the nearest school to us. No biggy, we pay.

Could you ask your church to multiply the bus passes to sate 5,000?

If you can't afford it, would your church be able to find some funds to pay for it for you?

NerfHerder - Faith schools can prioritise applications on faith criteria but they cannot exclude children for not meeting faith requirements. If they have places over after dealing with faith applicants they must be offered to anyone who applies. Note that children with a statement of SEN must be admitted regardless of whether or not they meet faith requirements.

The churches started educating children long before the state got involved. The land and buildings of faith schools generally belong to the church (or other religious organisation for non-Christian faith schools) which contributes 10% of the cost of any capital works. Abolishing faith schools would require the government to spend billions buying land and properties from the churches or building new schools to replace faith schools. It would also leave the taxpayer with increased costs going forwards.

New faith schools are generally not allowed to select more than 50% of their input on faith grounds. Many older faith schools are similarly reserving places for non-faith applicants (although not Catholic schools - the Catholic church has come out against such policies).

All schools discriminate against some children in your terms. They discriminate against children who don't have a statement of SEN and aren't looked after or previously looked after. They discriminate against children who don't already have a sibling at the school. They may discriminate against those who don't have special medical needs. And they discriminate based on distance from school. All things in which the children have no say. So, unless you believe we shouldn't be able to prioritise applicants in these categories, the state will inevitably fund schools that discriminate against children.

The state funds the child, not the school. The funding received by a school is based on the number of pupils it has on the roll. Personally I would be happy with a system where the parents received a voucher and could spend the funding where they wished - faith school, academy, community school, independent school or any other type of educational establishment. But I accept that isn't what we've got. And this is getting a long way from the OP's question about free bus passes.

PRH, I know we are getting a long way off the original thread (!) but I think the other "discriminatory" criteria you cite are not remotely comparable to religious discrimination, which is now outlawed in most contexts outside education. I think that few would argue with the policy of giving children with SEN or looked after children a high priority, as such children are much more likely to be disadvantaged compared with the general pool of children applying. An absence of sibling priority (at least in the context of primary schools - I can see there is more of a debate to be had at secondary level) could make it practically impossible for many families to get their children to school. Prioritising on distance helps to reduce traffic congestion by increasing the number of children who can walk to school, and reduces the risk of children having to grapple with very long journeys to school (with families or the state having to fund the cost). All these things have a social benefit/ benefit to society as a whole. Religious discrimination does not. In particular, its practical consequence is often to result in schools which do not reflect the ethnic mix of the local community, with white pupils disproportionately going to one local school and Asian pupils disproportionately represented in another. I really do not see how that brings any kind of social benefit/ benefit to society as a whole.

I admit I was playing devil's advocate.

I am sure in some areas faith schools do end up not reflecting the ethnic mix of the local community. Some faith schools will be disproportionately white, some will be disproportionately non-white.