School Transport for Children with Special Educational Needs

Special Transport Needs

If you are the parent or carer of a child with special educational needs who has an identified particular transport need, you may qualify for assistance with the cost of transporting your child to and from school.

Children may have special transport needs if they have:

• Additional needs or disabilities that place them or others at serious risk of danger during the journey to and from school
• A mobility difficulty or medical condition which requires a specialised vehicle, e.g. Tail-lift access, High Dependency Vehicle’

If it is agreed that your child has a special transport need, the local authority may provide travel assistance in one of a variety of ways;

• A bus pass
• Minibus
• Taxi
• High Dependency Vehicle
• We may offer you a mileage allowance to take your child to school

Notes:

• If travel assistance is provided and your child is travelling alone, you may be asked to go with them.
• If the school is beyond walking distance, travel assistance arrangements will include your journey back home after dropping your child at school and your journey to school to collect your child.
• If a group of children is travelling together, the local authority will usually provide someone to accompany them.
• All arrangements made for children with special transport needs will be kept under review, and the nature of any travel assistance is likely to change over time; for example, as your child gets older, they may be provided with independent travel skills training and support to enable them to use public transport and to travel independently.

If you decide to send your child to a school that is further away than the nearest appropriate school with available places, travel assistance will not be provided.

Special Transport for Under 5s 

Children aged between two and five years do not usually travel independently and would not, therefore, normally be eligible for travel assistance unless they have a special transport need (please see definition above). Some pupils under five may receive help with travel costs if they have significant special transport needs.

School Transport Policy

The following PDF Document contains more information about the 'Home to School and College Travel Assistance Policy.' Click the button below.

Home to School and College Travel Assistance Policy