Applying for school travel assistance

Free school travel assistance (4 to 16 year olds)

We can provide free school travel assistance if your child meets certain criteria.

In most cases, eligible children will be provided with a bus pass for home-to-school transport. In some cases other transport methods (e.g. public bus or taxi) may be provided.

Eligibility

There are 4 ways your child may be able to get free travel assistance to school, including if:

We will provide or arrange free travel arrangements either by dedicated vehicle or bus pass for:

  • a child under 8, where the walking distance is more than 2 miles from home to school
  • a child aged 8 to 16, where the walking distance is more than 3 miles from home to the school
  • a child where the route has been assessed as unacceptable to walk according to our policy

See Appendix A of the Home to School Transport policy.

Although a school may have a linked area, school transport assistance can't be provided if it's not the nearest suitable school under our policy - you will be responsible for the cost of your child's transport to and from school.

Low income is a household annual income of £16,190 or below.

Your child must:

  • be of school age
  • attend their nearest suitable school
  • receive free school meals or you receive the maximum amount of Working Tax Credit

And one of the following:

  • Children aged 8 to 10 - the distance from home to their school is more than 2 miles on the shortest available walking route
  • Children aged 11 to 16 - the distance from home to school is between 2 and 6 miles (this is increased to 15 miles if they can demonstrate that they have gained a place at a school because of their or their family's religion or belief)

If eligibility for free school meals or maximum level Working Tax Credit stops, then free travel assistance will be withdrawn at the end of the academic year.

Although a school may have a linked area, school transport assistance can't be provided if it's not the nearest suitable school under our policy - you will be responsible for the cost of your child's transport to and from school.

Where a student qualifies on grounds of low income and also has SEND which means transport assistance is needed, then transport will be provided free of charge as part of post-16 transport.

Apply

If you are in receipt of benefits, you need to provide evidence of this with the online form.

Applications for the new academic year in September need to be submitted to us by 11:59pm on the 3rd Friday in May. We can't guarantee assistance will be put in place in time for any applications received after this date.

Full guidance is provided in our policies.

After applying

We will acknowledge receipt of your application within 10 working days and usually make a decision within 30 working days if we have all the information we need. 

Any missing information may delay things. We will contact you if we need more information.

We organise transport in July and August. We aim to have all arrangements in place by 15 August and will notify you as soon as we can.

Please don't contact us before, unless something in your application has materially changed (in which case email [email protected]).

We need to prioritise applications for travel assistance needed in the current year, so this may delay applications for September.

Appeal

If your application is refused, you can appeal online.

Change of address

Tell us about a change of address if your child is getting travel assistance.

Last updated 27 February 2025