SEN school transport

[fibee29]

Hi I have a 12 year old ds who attends a secondary school 15 miles away and he currently gets collected and dropped of from school in a taxi with 3 other children he has asd and he doesn't cope very well with this travel scenario. I have today requested after much thought and changing my working hours, that I take him to school and collect him. They have told me that there is an allowance that they will pay me to do this. I am apparently only allowed to do this if it works out cheaper for the council than him going in the taxi. To me the most important thing is him going to school not anxious or worked up from the 40 min drive. My question is does anybody else take their child to school that qualifies for travel and how do you get the money ? Is it weekly, monthly ? In arrears? One lump sum? I need to work out if I can actually afford to do this as it is 60 miles a day! 😃

I think you need to ask your Local Authority specifically ,as the arrangements will be different in every different LA.

We used to get this years ago when DS went to college and we got it termly.

You could also think about asking the LA for a separate taxi for your child. By law, school transport has to be non-stressful and such that your child arrives at school ready to learn: if he arrives stressed out by his journey he obviously isn't going to take in a lot from his first lessons. Refer them to paragraph 5 of the official guidance - www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-guidance.

You need something official that backs you up on the stress caused by the current journey, e.g. a medical report or a report from someone like an educational psychologist if he has trouble with dealing with other children, or an occupational therapist if the problem is that he has sensory difficulties and can't cope with noise etc. If they refuse, you can appeal.

You might find it helpful to contact SENTAS - sentas.co.uk