School transport nightmares

[Bagpuss]

Our dd (5 ASD and muscular dystrophy) goes to a mainstream primary school about 15 mins away. Since starting there in theirSN nursery she has been going on school transport as advised in her statement. She is now in an assessment class with 10 other children, and is due to move up to the next assessement class in Sept with slightly older children and more challenging work. Overall she's been quite happy at this school, and we feel her needs are being well met. Unfortunately we've had a serious of difficulties with the transport, with her being collected earlier and earlier. It reached a point where she was being picked up at 7.30 to start school at 9, and being dropped off at 4.30 after finishing at 3. We continually requested the manager of the transport dept address this, but his solutions were ridiculous to say the least and included the suggestion that we put her on a dial a ride bus, with no chaperone. Eventually we reached a point where we couldn't take it anymore and said that unless the transport was addressed, and the travelling time lessened dd was staying home. We also suggested they take a good long look at government guidelines, which we were advised were no child should be travelling longer than an hour and 3 hrs a day was detrimental to our dd's health. Luckily for us, the overall boss of the transport dept (who we had thought was the fella we had been dealing with) got involved, and she arranged for our dd to go in a taxi each morning, with 2 other children and a chaperone, with a travelling time of 20 mins and she also managed to cut the travelling time down on the bus home to 3/4 hour. She also expressed the opinion that what our dd had been travelling had been totally unacceptable. Today we had a call from our dd's teacher. She said the fella from transport(yes, that one!) had been in touch, and as from Sept our dd was back on the bus going to and from school. Pick up time will be 8 am ...so she will be travelling approx 2 hrs per day. The other suggestion he had was that our dd went on a bus travelling to a special school in the same town as our dd's school, but they couldn't get her there till 9.30 each day, so she will miss 2 1/2 hours of schooling each week. DH and I have hit rock bottom. We are so sick and tired of fighting the transport dept, and are seriously considering removing our dd from this school and the assessment class and placing her in our local primary with our eldest dd. We've left a message with the "overall lady boss" of transport, but she's not back till Monday. Anyone got any advice on this, as we really feel at a loss as to our rights, our dd's rights, and if removing dd is the solution, or if that's the absolutely wrong thing to do....whats your thoughts and experiences??? Thanks...sorry for the long rant

[Anneuk]

I think transport is a nightmare for many of us.

 

I have recently had my case passed onto IPSEA who are going to proceed with a case against our LEA because, the way they provide transport means that my dd is being discriminated against (in her case because she is not allowed to attend after schools classes)

 

Maybe you could have a word with the Autistic society, they are the ones who advised me in the first instance and got me in touch with people who really could help.

 

That amount of travelling time is horrendous even for an adult never mind a child who has difficulties.

 

Hope you get the help you need.

 

Anne

[phasmid]

Have you got a copy of your LAs SEN specific transport policy? It may (ought to ) be on their website. I assume you have a copy of the DfES model policy if not let me know and I'll dig out the link for you.

[phasmid]

Downloadable pdf version of DfES Model Policy.

 

Hope that helps.

[Kathryn]

Hi Bagpuss,

 

You might find this court case from Ipsea's website interesting and useful. A high court judge ruled that school transport provided by the LEA must be "non stressful" . The case also involved journey times - might be worth quoting and also ringing IPSEA themselves for advice.

 

K x

[Bagpuss]

Phasmid, Kathryn and Anne, thankyou all so much for the links and advice <'> Just read thru both links......the mind boggles doesn't it., need some serious caffine now as its getting on for 2 am I found the following on the link Phasmid left "journeys should minimise stress and LA's should establish a service standard for maximum time pupils should be on bus. Most LA's set a target of between 45 - 75 mins". Does this mean in one journey or for the entire day? If its for one journey the transport dept could argue that getting our dd to school in an hour is adequate...and may have to go down the route of "ensure that journey times are reasonable and that undue stress is not caused by extended periods on vehicles" and also "for some pupils the journey to and from school can have significant impact on the quality of the school day or evening at home"to argue our point....these recommendatioins may work in our favour. Kathryn, your link was also really interesting, especially the part "LEA is under a duty to make such arrangements as it considers necessary for a child to reach school without undue stress, strain or difficulty such as would prevent him from benefitting from the education the school has to offer"...this is our concern re our dd's travelling time...the MD means she tires far more easily than a typical child. There was also alot of interesting points on Phasmid's link re transport and recommendations for ASD children....suggesting avoiding unncesssary changes and using specific staff......heck, our dd has had numerous chaperones, who have all arrived/changed without warning, and had her transport pick up/drop off times chopped and changed continually. We were actually told by the fella from transport that our dd was the first to be collected and last to be dropped off because she behaved better than most on the bus and seemed happy enough...oh, and she was toilet trained and therefore could wait longer periods without needing the loo Thanks again everyone...will keep you posted and let you know what next week brings....

Edited July 15, 2006 by Bagpuss

[Bagpuss]

Just an update....DH spoke to transport today. He was told that the service has now been centralised, and the contracts given to new companies as of Sept, which is a good thing, as the last company weren't great. The taxi will be stopped, as it was only carrying 2 children as one girl left last week, and it wasn't cost effective. Apparantly they have re-routed the bus service for Sept. to fall within their guidelines of each child spending no more than one hour on the bus per journey. They have assured DH that our dd will not spend more than this on the bus. Not sure what to make of it to be honest and I think we will not be able to get the journey reduced if they are managing to stick to their guidelines of one hour. I think we are kind of suspicious because she intially started off on the bus and the pick up gradually became earlier and earlier, until she was being collected hour and half before school, but they are adamant this will not happen again. Decided to go with it, and see how it goes. Our dd's annual review is in Jan, and by then we will be able to decide if dd can cope with the travelling or not, and if not, we can discuss an alternatives. Not sure if we've caved in or not......sometimes it can be so confusing to know what is the right thing to do......

[phasmid]

You haven't caved in you have compromised. There is a difference. I think you have got the right attitude..you'll try it and see if it will work, if it doesn't you can say at least you tried it there way.

Edited July 17, 2006 by phasmid

[Bagpuss]

thanks phasmid