Special Educational Needs: Transport

(asked on 1st July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of children with special educational needs that are unable to access education as a result of inadequate provision of free home to school transport.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 9th July 2019

The information requested is not held centrally about the number of children that receive free home to school transport.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide free home to school transport for all eligible children. They also have a discretionary power to provide free or subsidised home to school transport for other children.

A child is eligible for free home to school transport if they are of compulsory school age and they attend their nearest suitable school and it is more than the statutory walking distance from their home. The statutory walking distance is two miles for children under the age of eight and three miles for children aged eight and over. They are also eligible if they attend their nearest suitable school and cannot reasonably be expected to walk there because of their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the route is unsafe.

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