Special Educational Needs: Transport
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what transport support is available for SEND families (a) in cases where a child is placed in a specialist setting but is not yet of compulsory school age and (b) in other instances.
Answered by Georgia Gould
The Education Act 1996 requires local authorities to arrange free home to school travel for eligible children. A child is eligible if they are of compulsory school age, 5 to 16, attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so. There are extended rights to free travel for children from low-income families.
Local authorities have the discretion to arrange travel for other children, such as those below compulsory school age attending a specialist setting, but are not required to do so. It is for each local authority to decide whether and how to exercise their discretionary power.
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