Post primary school transport scheme. How has it effected you?

derkav

Hi All,

I am posting an open letter that I have sent to Minister Ciaran Cannon TD Minister of State for Training and Skills at the Dept of Education and Skills.

We are at our whits end with this whole situation and I really want to see if anyone else is in the same situation. Parts of this letter have been published in the Laois Nationalist. We have also been featured in the Daily mail. We need to get as much publicity and support as possible behind this cause. This cannot just be an isolated incident. Thanks in advance for your reply's or help.

"Dear Ciaran, (CC's FYI)

I am writing to you out of desperation at a situation that I can only see to be farcical. After enrolling our Son in Heywood community school, we were told to register him on bus eireann school transport scheme.
Which we did, We then received a letter stating that we would not get a ticket for the route from the Swan to Heywood as our nearest school is Castlecomber. There in no precedence for students from the Swan to attend this school and there is no transport available to this school from the Swan. We could however apply for a concessionary ticket. The letter also states that early indications are that there will be plenty of seats available on this bus route. We had no issue with this as we thought that the free ticket was only available to family's who were on welfare. We paid for the ticket at the time. We then went through all the enrollment procedures for Heywood I.E. Enrollment tests, buying the Books for the school, uniforms and the usual accoutrements. As the date for starting school approached we had not received a ticket for the bus and I checked the Bus eireann web site which stated that concessionary tickets would only be assigned after the last two weeks in august. I contacted Bus Eirann on 21st August and was informed that Eric would not be getting on the bus as we had to get the bus to Castlecomber. As I have previously stated, there is no bus from the Swan to Castle comber.
According to your own guidelines set out in "School transport Post Primary Scheme "

In section 3 paragraph 1. It states "Children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 4.8 kms from and are attending their nearest education center as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language."

Our home is 14.2 Km from Heywood school.

Then in Section 4 paragraph 3 It states " Where practicable, and subject to considerations of cost and logistics, routes are planned to avoid an eligible child having to travel more than 3.2 kms to or from a pick up/set down point or to have travel and waiting times in excess of 2.5 hours per day. Routes are planned on the basis of the locations of children who are eligible for school transport only."

I will now reiterate my point of there is no pick-up point for Castle comber school that is 3.2km from my home in the swan. The Pick up point for Heywood is less than 1 km from our home and is used for all attending students from the area.

On a side note Bus eireann have Stated previously that the distance measured from school to home is done by Gate to gate. If you measure from gate to gate, my home is closer Heywood than castle comber. This is even taking the shortest possible route to Castle comber school which is on a road that for a portion of the year is unusable due to flooding, ice and trees down from storm's.

Obviously this is a matter of urgency as school has starts proper on Tuesday 28th august. When we will have no choice but to drive to Heywood school and pass by all the stops that the bus makes on its route. This situation is ridiculous and needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. I work in Dublin and drive for over 3 hours every day to get to and from work. We are the product of bad planning where the only home we could afford was so far away from our original homes in Leixlip that we have no support structures. We also have two younger children one to start primary and one to start play school this year. It is an impossibility for us to be able to collect the children at the same times. Example. On Fridays Heywood school finishes at 13:50 and the Swan national school finishes at 14:00. So we have to make a decision as to what child we can pick up and what child we have to leave standing out side their school unsupervised. Again this in an unacceptable situation forced upon us by your policy changes.

As you will also be aware the addition of hundreds of private cars on the roads will have a very negative impact on the environment and general safety of children in and around the school buildings. Not to mention the cost that will have to be incurred by already extremely over stretched family budgets.

I look forward to your reply."

Sponge Bob

There are new rules which have led to the rationalisation of bus routes, many unchanged since the 1960s. Basically they mean that a school bus 'run' will only go to the nearest secondary school or primary school and then only for minimum 10 kids living at 3km plus irrespective of kids within 10km on the same route.

This has been ongoing since before Cannon came along at all. See

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0628/education.html

" the Department of Education is cutting around 150 routes where fewer than ten pupils live more than 3km from the school."

also

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/bus-rule-changes-cost-parents-hundreds-of-euro-205671.html

"Changes to transport rules mean students are only entitled to a place to their nearest school, even if they have siblings already travelling on school buses to another institution. "

or between 3km ( I personally thought it was 5 not 3) and 14km as in your case. If 10 students along that route were discommoded you may have a case...especially if they applied before the summer and the department knew the demand was there.

I even heard of parents registering with a school half way to another and organising pooling from the gate of that school to the other school. Once the child has a ticket they have a ticket....even if the parents change their mind later.

Cannon apparently only does 'meetings' in Loughrea around the weekend, he is supposedly impossible to get in Dublin.

foggy_lad

So the op must get the bus to castlecomber school even though there is no bus to that school within a reasonable distance from their house but they are barred from getting a bus which stops within 1km from theri house to a school which is closer "gate to gate".


The sooner a private company takes over the school bus services the better it will be for people who chose to live in out of the way places.

dowlingm

foggy_lad wrote: »

The sooner a private company takes over the school bus services the better it will be for people who chose to live in out of the way places.

With your remarkable belief in the powers of the private sector to make something out of nothing FL, it's a wonder you're not spending this week in a conference centre in Tampa with a Romney badge on your lapel.

Seaswimmer

foggy_lad wrote: »

The sooner a private company takes over the school bus services the better it will be for people who chose to live in out of the way places.

The key here is the bit about "people who chose to live in out of the way places"

I think rural dwelling comes with a cost. Sometimes the cost is met by the state but often has to be borne by the people themselves. People living in rural areas have many advantages but public transport is not one of them.
Also by making a choice to send your children to a school that is not the nearest you really then have to make it work yourself and not expect the State to provide a tailored transport service.

schemingbohemia

Am I reading the OP wrong? They state that Heywood is 14km from their home but that Castlecomber is 3.2km? Presumably that is why they're refused transport as they've chosen to go to the "wrong" school.

n97 mini

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Am I reading the OP wrong?

Yes.

There is no pick-up point for the Castlecomer bus within 3.2km of the OP's house. There is however a pick-up point for Heywood within 1km of his house.

Castlecomber is about 11km from The Swan, and has the nearest school.

In fairness to the OP, he's not looking for anything other than to get on a bus that runs close to his house.

schemingbohemia

But he is not going to the nearest school, castlecomer is nearer than heywood.

n97 mini

schemingbohemia wrote: »

But he is not going to the nearest school, castlecomer is nearer than heywood.

That is correct. Even though the bus to Heywood is a lot closer they won't let him get it as Castlecomer school is closer.

ckd

I know this thread has been here a couple of months but I was just wondering does the above rule apply to a Gaelscoil? Would the Gaelsccoil fall under the 'having regard to ethos and language' rule?

My kids go to the nearest gaelscoil which is 8 miles away from our home but the nearest school is less than a mile away. I know a bus runs from my area to the Gaelscoil but I'm wondering would my children be entitled to get it.

Seaswimmer

ckd wrote: »

I know this thread has been here a couple of months but I was just wondering does the above rule apply to a Gaelscoil? Would the Gaelsccoil fall under the 'having regard to ethos and language' rule?

My kids go to the nearest gaelscoil which is 8 miles away from our home but the nearest school is less than a mile away. I know a bus runs from my area to the Gaelscoil but I'm wondering would my children be entitled to get it.

I live in Dublin but sent the kids to a gaelscoil. it was just over 3 miles away and I was entitled to the school transport scheme. This was not free but gave them a travel card to use on dublin bus during school times and from point to point. i used it for a couple of years but eventually it became cheaper to get the child/scholar tickets. there were other English speaking schools within the 3 miles so I think the rules are different for Gaelscoils..

Julius Seizure

Well, Dublin bus are slightly different. The rest of the country is done on catchment areas. So if I go to an English school my catchment is Killanaule. But if I want the Irish or Religion catchment I get Kilkenny.

Hesh's Umpire

Dubhaltach wrote: »

Well, Dublin bus are slightly different. The rest of the country is done on catchment areas. So if I go to an English school my catchment is Killanaule. But if I want the Irish or Religion catchment I get Kilkenny.

Not exactly. The catchment areas are gone nationwide. Dublin is treated the same as the rest of the country. The nearest school determines transport eligibilty with the exceptions for language and ethos.

Julius Seizure

Hesh's Umpire wrote: »

Not exactly. The catchment areas are gone nationwide. Dublin is treated the same as the rest of the country. The nearest school determines transport eligibilty with the exceptions for language and ethos.

But with Dublin bus anyone can buy a schoolchild ticket when in uniform or a period ticket from O'Connel street

LXFlyer

The Dublin Bus ticket is completely different to the School Transport Scheme.

Victor

Dubhaltach wrote: »

But with Dublin bus anyone can buy a schoolchild ticket when in uniform or a period ticket from O'Connel street

Those tickets are for scheduled Dublin Bus services.

Separately there are services that go to specific schools, where the student is charged an annual fee and the buses are for school students only. This may be due to language (primarily Irish, I'm not sure about the French, German or other schools), religion (mostly minorities) or imbalance between number of students and number of school places in a particular neighbourhood. Many of these buses are under the Department of Education / Bus Éireann scheme, but I think there are some that aren't, e.g. Alexandra College (Church if Ireland ethos) and Rathgar Junior School (non-denominational) share a liveried bus, so I suspect they operate it privately.