Parents are responsible for ensuring their child attends school. This means they must take all the action necessary to enable their child to attend school.

For most parents, this includes making arrangements for their child to travel to and from school. Local authorities must make arrangements, free-of-charge, for eligible children to travel to school.

Local authorities in England are required to arrange free and suitable home to school transport for children of compulsory school age who are eligible.

Eligible children fall within four groups. Click the buttons below to find out more about each eligibility criteria

If your child has SEND, or mobility problems which means they would struggle to walk to school, they are an “eligible child”.
It may not be reasonable to expect a child to walk to school because of a physical disability, but it may also not be reasonable to expect them to walk because of an educational need, if for example, they lack a sense of danger
Local authorities should assess the route at the times your child would be taking it.
Local authorities should consider the whole of the route and should take into account factors including the age of your child, whether risks might be less if accompanied by an adult, the width of the road and whether there are any pavements, the volume and speed of traffic, the street lighting and the different conditions at different times of year
The statutory walking distances are two miles for children under eight years old and three miles for those aged eight and over (Section 444(5) of the Education Act 1996)
The local authority must consider the shortest route along which the child, accompanied as necessary, may walk in reasonable safety. This is not always the shortest distance by road.
Your child is eligible for free travel to school if:
- They are eligible for free school meals, or
- they live with a parent who received maximum working tax credit
and your child
- is aged at least 8 but under 11 and attends their nearest suitable school and it is more than 2 miles from their home
- is aged 11 to 16 years and attends one of their three nearest suitable schools provided it is more than 2 miles but not more than 6 miles from their home, or
- is aged 11-16 years and attends a school that is more than 2 but no more than 15 miles from their home that parents have chosen on the grounds of religion or belief, if there is not suitable school nearer to their home on the basis of that religion or belief.

If your child meets any of these categories, they should be entitled to home to school transport.

What are travel arrangements?

‘Home to school travel arrangements’, in relation to an eligible child, are travel arrangements in both directions between your child’s home and the relevant educational establishment.

They include arrangements for the provision of travel, and any of the following arrangements – but only if they are made with your parental consent:

provide expenses to enable the parent to make their own travel arrangements for their child.
pay a cycling allowance to enable a child to cycle to school.
provide independent travel training to a child where it is appropriate to do so
provide someone to escort your child, for example when they are walking or on transport to and from school.

If your child has an EHCP

A child does not need an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) to be eligible for transport on the grounds of SEND. Also, an EHCP does not automatically mean that free transport will be provided.

Children with Education, Health and Care Plans may qualify for free home to school travel. If the school named in the plan is the nearest suitable school and beyond the statutory walking distance or they cannot reasonably be expected to walk.

The guidance is clear that school named in the plan will be nearest suitable school, unless there has been a parental request for a different suitable school which is further.

In these circumstances the LA has the following options:

name a different school that would be appropriate for the child’s needs (this may be the nearer school), or
name the parent’s preferred school on the condition that the parent arranges the travel or provides some or all of the cost of the travel, or
name the parent’s preferred school on the condition that they arrange the travel (or provide some or all of the cost) and name a different school that would be appropriate for the child’s needs and to which the authority would provide transport.

Appeals

If you are unhappy with the decision that has been made about your childs school transport support, you can request a review by a senior officer.
- you have 20 working days from receipt of the decision to make a written request for a review
- the request should say why you think the decision should be reviewed, including details of personal or family circumstances that should be considered.
- the local authority then has 20 working days from receiving the written request to have a senior officer conduct the review and send you a written notification of their decision along with details of how the review was conducted
If you are unhappy with the review decision you could now appeal to an independent appeal panel, known as stage two.
If you are unhappy with the reviewed decision about your childs school transport support, you can now request an appeal with an independent appeal panel.
- you have 20 working days from receiving the stage one decision to make a written request to escalate it to stage two
- within 40 working days of this request, an independent appeal panel will consider written and verbal representations from both the parents and officers involved in the case
- within 5 days they will provide you with a written notification of the decision along with details about how the review was conducted, information about other departments or agencies that were consulted with, why they have reached the decision and information about your right to put the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman
The independent appeal panel members should be independent of the original decision making process (but not required to be independent of the local authority) and suitably experienced, to ensure a balance between meeting the needs of the parent/carers and the local authority, that road safety requirements are complied with, and no child is placed at unnecessary risk.

If you feel that you have been affected by an unlawful policy and your child should be entitled to home to school transport then you can Complain about a council service | Sheffield City Council