A student entitled to transport assistance may receive:

• Transport by contract school bus, or
• A conveyance allowance, paid to their parents/carers.

SBS will determine which form of transport assistance is appropriate and made available to individual students. Transport is usually by contract school bus and where this is not possible or impractical the PTA may offer the payment of a conveyance allowance. Only in exceptional circumstances will other forms of transport assistance be considered.

Kindergarten Students

Subject to their meeting the eligibility criteria that apply to all rural students, students enrolled in kindergarten may be entitled to transport assistance. See Kindergarten Students Travelling on 'Orange' School Buses

In addition:

• Parent/carers must agree to the terms and conditions of travel. Please note it is the responsibility of the student’s  parent/carer to decide whether their child is capable of travel.
• Transport Assistance in the form of a conveyance allowance is available to parents of eligible students to drive their kindergarten aged child to and from school. See conveyance allowance.

Equidistant appropriate schools

In most circumstances, SBS treats schools as being equal distant for practical purposes if the distance variance between them in relation to a student’s residence is less than or equal to 2.5km.

Examples of how the nearest appropriate school policy is applied

The scenarios described below are examples only of how this policy is applied, and are not intended to cover all possible configurations of students, schools and contract school bus services.

The figures used in the examples are not to scale.

The following terms are used in the examples:

DHS District High School:  A school that provides educational programs for students for years 8 to 10 inclusive;
SHS Senior High School:   A school that provides educational programs for students for years 8 to 12 inclusive.

Example 1 (see figure 1)

Student’s situation
An eligible student in year 8 resides closer to School A than School B;
School A is a district high school appropriate to the student;
School B is a district high school appropriate to the student;
Schools A and B are both served by contract school bus services, and the student has access to both bus networks.

Student’s entitlement
Under the policy of transport assistance for travel to the nearest appropriate school, the student would be entitled to transport assistance for travel to School A.
The student would not be entitled to transport assistance for travel to School B.
The student may, if the relevant contract school bus has adequate seating capacity, apply to travel to School B as a complimentary passenger (see section – Complimentary Passengers).

Example 2 (see figure 2)

Student’s situation
An eligible student in year 9 resides closer to School A than School B;
School A is a district high school (i.e offers only years 8, 9 and 10) and is appropriate to the student;
School B is a senior high school (i.e offers years 8 – 12 inclusive) and is appropriate to the student;
School A is not served by any contract school bus service;
School B is served by contract school bus services, and is also served by a regional public transport network.

Student’s entitlement
Under the policy of transport assistance for travel to the nearest appropriate school, the student would be entitled to a conveyance
allowance for travel to School A (because there are no contract school buses serving that school).
The student would not be entitled to transport assistance for travel to School B while they are in years 9 and 10.
The student may, if the relevant contract school bus has adequate seating capacity, apply to travel to School B as a complimentary passenger until year 10 (see section – Complimentary Passengers).

If the student is still living in the same location when they enter years 11 and 12, they would be entitled to transport assistance for travel to School B on a contract school bus service (because for years 11 and 12, School B would be the student’s nearest appropriate school).

Example 3 (see figure 3)

Student’s situation
An eligible primary school student resides closer to School A than School B;
School A is a primary school appropriate to the student;
School B is a primary school appropriate to the student;
School A is served by a range of contract school bus services which are in close proximity to the student’s residence;
School B is served by a range of contract school bus services, but none follow routes as close to the student’s residence as those which serve School A.

Student’s entitlement
Under the policy of transport assistance for travel to the nearest appropriate school, the student would be entitled to transport assistance for travel to School A.
The student would not be entitled to transport assistance for travel to School B.
The student may, if the relevant contract school bus has adequate seating capacity, apply to travel to School B as a complimentary passenger (see section – Complimentary Passengers).
 

Example 4 (see figure 4)

Student’s situation
An eligible primary school student’s residence is practically equidistant with respect to School A and School B;
School A is a primary school appropriate to the student;
School B is a primary school appropriate to the student;
School A is served by a range of contract school bus services;
School B is served by a range of contract school bus services, one of which is in closer proximity to the student’s residence than any of those serving School A.

Student’s entitlement
Under the policy of transport assistance for travel to the nearest appropriate school, the student would be entitled to transport assistance for travel to School B. The student would not be entitled to transport assistance for travel to School A.
The student may, if the relevant contract school bus has adequate seating capacity, apply to travel to School A as a complimentary passenger (see section – Complimentary Passengers).
 

Example 5 (see figure 5)

Students’ situation
A group of eligible students enrolled in years 8 and 9 at School A (which is a DHS) are notified that their school will be closing at the end of the year;
The next closest school is School B (a DHS appropriate to all the students);
School C is an SHS appropriate to the students;
School B is (on average) 20 km closer to the group of students than School C is;
School B is not served by any contract school bus services;
School C is served by two contract school bus services, both of which have the capacity to have their journeys extended to pick up the students who will be affected by the closure of School A;

There are not enough students affected by School A’s closure to justify instituting a new service to take the students to School B.
 

Students’ entitlement
Because there are existing services whose routes can be modified to pick them up, the students affected by the closure of School A are entitled to transport assistance for travel to School C in the form of transport by contract school bus.  The students would not be entitled to transport assistance in the form of a contract bus service for travel to School B. Note that this is a simple example which considers the group of affected students as a whole. A student who lived closer to School B than School C and who wished to attend School B would be entitled to a conveyance allowance.