Wondering....

[Eliza22]

Anyone on here who gets school transport? I'm fed up to the eye teeth with ours. My ds is in mainstream secondary which has a learning support unit for ASD. We were lucky he is statemented or he'd never have got in, resources being as limited as they are. He has ASD and very debilitating OCD.

The problem is this. The first year of (8 seater) taxi was fine. Then in September, they changed company and now it's someone else. Same 3 kids (ds is one of them). The journey is approx 45 mins there, 45 - 60 mins coming home. Ds gets off in the evening and reeks of cigarettes. He looks green and has a headache. Something's going in, I'm not sure what. I spoke to school SENCO who said she'd have a word. Nothing's changed. He needs full clean uni for every day. I wash his school blazer every weekend.

Now, the driver has started making comments about ds being late. He isn't. His pick up is 8am and he's standing at the window, ready and watching for the taxi to come round the corner. The TA told me last week, that ds (who's OCD is massive ATM) goes out to the taxi at 3.10 (before everyone else) so he's not late. I'm really fucked off with it to the point where I'm thinking of using his DLA to pay for school transport.

Any suggestions? Anyone funding their own transport? I guess I could meet with similar difficulties but at least it'd be a quicker journey and I could insist on a non-smoker.

You have a good case for complaining to the LA. Don't even threaten to pay for transport yourself, though.

And not sure what sort of journey your DS has, but DLA might not actually cover it. One week of DS1's LRM would barely cover one return taxi journey to the nearest mainstream secondary. You might not be guaranteed a CRB checked driver, either.

But if I complain to the LA, what will they do? The man says he never smokes in his cab. He also denies that he doesn't try to hurry ds, as I tackled him, in very friendly manner one day and said it really makes ds anxious to be thought rude/late/bad mannered. He just looked at me and said he'd never said it.

Sorry, I meant to say, he denies trying to hurry ds.

It is tricky but the LA raising the problems with him may well have more effect than doing it yourself.
Have you spoken to anyone at the LA? Our transport officer is actually very helpful and has ironed out any problems we have had.

Ok. I'll try talking with them first. Ds is getting to be a shocking traveller. He has those wrist band things which don't work and tablets make him sleepy. He takes Prozac for the OCD so, am loathe to add further medication twice a day. The journey seems to get longer and longer. I've been picking him up myself to get him home quicker but it's an hours round trip.