AIBU to think that if kids have to stay in further education post 16 then transport should be provided?

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Just wondering what your thoughts are on this? My twin boys are doing their gcses in the summer (one of them is on SEN) and then will be going onto post 16 because all kids have to now. As it stands the school have their own buses that collect all the kids to get them to school. However at post 16 they are asking me to pay approx £750 per year per CHILD towards the school bus. That for me is £1500 that I don't have spare and for the measly £4.72 I get maintenance off their dad isn't going to touch it. If it is compulsory the government want them to stay on then surely it should be paid for. Any thoughts on the matter?

This is what I mean about people living in a city-centric bubble. The families hit hardest by this are the ones who live a considerable distance fromany schoolnot the families who have several in walking distance but choose one further away.

This - rural catchment areas. You might live in the catchment area and still be 20 miles from school. Education or apprenticeships or other training may all be equally inaccessible. There may not be any option of public transport, and may not have been for decades. It's the school bus or nothing, and if your parents are agricultural workers or in other low paid work, it is a massive cost. Plus decisions about continuing education or apprenticeship training or whatever should ideally be made on what is best for the 16yo in question and what course they are accepted on, rather than it all being prohibitive because of transport costs.

We are not even talking the highlands here, we are on the Beds/Northants border, so still considered the periphery of the south east, yet our secondary school is 7 miles away down country roads without footpaths or lighting - totally unsuitable for kids to walk.

We have no public bus service to our village, this was withdrawn two years ago, although that is a rant about transport infrastructure rather than post 16 school transport.

I think it is outrageous that bus fares dictate a choice between A levels or an apprenticeship for struggling families
Good point

Manchester have the same travel policy as London. Our mayor arranged for 16-18 year olds to have free travel. I do have to pay for my 12 year old £8.50 a week because we live 500 metres away from the cut off for free transportation

Interesting reading these replies. My boys school is the most local, it's 3.4 miles away and doesn't have a pedestrian footpath to even consider walking or cycling. It is an academy and when they started the school advised we would get free transport as in catchment. The most frustrating point is that their bus stop where they catch the bus is the last stop before they get to the school so the cost is horrendous for the bus pass. One of my boys has decided he might go to a different college which I will still have to pay for transport. The one with SEN is most likely to stay where he is due to not handling change very well.

Geneveiva I was not looking down on apprenticeships. I think they are excellent. But advice to the OP was that 16yos do not have to stay in education, they can go into training (and apprenticeships are paid do they can more easily afford bus fare) therefore should not be entitled to free travel.

My point is that a child who wants to Maths, Further Maths and Physics and study theoretical physics at Oxford should not be obliged to take an apprenticeship in accounting, business or carpentry on the basis of bus fares.

Most LAs are so short of money, they cap transport costs. They put as much as possible into schools. When it was free transport for all, the schools complained. In my LA, parents have paid for post 16 transport since 1990. Before then, FE college students did but not A level students in school so the FE students were penalised. Most were doing full time courses. The travel costs were then applied to all so it was fair for all.

Thing is, even if my kids very, very rural school had free transport for those who wanted to do Maths, Further Maths and Physics, that would not help those who didn't stay on. School will only accept students who need to resit one out of Maths and English, the next nearest option is another ten miles.

So they should be able to get free or very heavily discounted travel to the further school / college.

I agree it should be free. However we have paid for secondary school transport for both ds and dd3 as we didnt pick the 1 school that we would get travelling paid for. The school we picked was 1 mile further. We were "lucky" that dd1 and 2 had it fully paid for (dd2s year was the last they paid for) however when dd1 and2 were at 6th form and ds plus dd3 at secondary we paid £1250 a year for school transport. Was the cost of wanting a say in what school our children would attend. Not right but sadly normal.

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted oddly the "catchment" school is not the school our children would get paid transport for. As we live on the border of 2 counties and the catchment school is in home county but the closest school is in neighbouring county. It really is not as simple as saying pick your catchment school (incedently we did pick catchment school for dd2 but had to remove her due to bullying)

I agree with OP. Our local secondary school has no sixth form and the nearest college is about 20 miles away. They are all about 20 miles away. So the only option is bus or car. Its a rural area so there arent loads of job / apprenticeship opportunities except hairdressing... I think they should either provide a sixth form or a free bus.

Honestly it's such a shame that parents are having to pay for buses just to keep children in FE.

At my sixth form if you live over 2 miles away or have a low income(?) the school helps pay for any travel costs people may need, because people come from all over. I think that's a general thing in my area too.

You said one of your DCs had SEN? Have you looked into a disabled bus pass for them, or is this bus a local school bus and not one that runs through the day that they can't use passes on? For me the disabled bus pass has been a godsend and saved me money.

I think you should consider yourself lucky to have 5 years free, lots of places don't provide free or subsidised transport.

The LEA provide the funds for under 16s but then they have no funding from government for 16+ transport and the schools can't find the money either.

There are funds available through various charities but you have to do the work to find them.

You could also look into a taxi service, ideally with other parents, a minibus on the same bus route but pre booked might work out cheaper.

Our state schools don't have 6th forms so it's 20+ miles to any of the 4 nearest 6th form colleges. On top of that there was a plan to cut the bus service!