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Education Transport

Toni

My six year old autistic son is changing to a junior school next September and although we are likely to get the shool we want we have been told that because we did not choose the nearlest appropriate (they mean mainstream) school we will not qualify for transport. The school is about 3 miles away. But my interpretation of appropriate is one that will meet his needs.

Has anyone else had this problem.

Toni

Parents

  • I also decided to send my son to a school that was not his normal catchment school when he moved to secondary school.  He got a statement of special educational needs when he moved to secondary school which apparently entitled him to free transport to school.  However no one actually told us this until he was 17 years old (6 years down the line!).  He was then allocated a taxi to and from school.  However at the end of the school year (July) this was cancelled by the education people and so when he returned to school in the September no taxi appeared.  Apparently this is something that you have to renew each year.  I then managed to sort out a taxi but the one that arrived was a large mini bus with lots of other children with special needs on it that dropped off at about three different schools before his and he had to leave home before 8am.  He refused to get on it.  I then found out that they would pay his mileage to and from school if he used his own car (he had passed his driving test by this point!).  Apparently they would have paid my mileage to take him to and from school for all the previous years but no one had bothered to tell us this.

    Basically, most education authorities have a department that deals with special needs transport and they are the people to talk to.  Unfortunately it is not an easy process and there are often occasions when the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. 

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  • I also decided to send my son to a school that was not his normal catchment school when he moved to secondary school.  He got a statement of special educational needs when he moved to secondary school which apparently entitled him to free transport to school.  However no one actually told us this until he was 17 years old (6 years down the line!).  He was then allocated a taxi to and from school.  However at the end of the school year (July) this was cancelled by the education people and so when he returned to school in the September no taxi appeared.  Apparently this is something that you have to renew each year.  I then managed to sort out a taxi but the one that arrived was a large mini bus with lots of other children with special needs on it that dropped off at about three different schools before his and he had to leave home before 8am.  He refused to get on it.  I then found out that they would pay his mileage to and from school if he used his own car (he had passed his driving test by this point!).  Apparently they would have paid my mileage to take him to and from school for all the previous years but no one had bothered to tell us this.

    Basically, most education authorities have a department that deals with special needs transport and they are the people to talk to.  Unfortunately it is not an easy process and there are often occasions when the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. 

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