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Overview for Parents and Carers

While parents/carers are primarily responsible for getting their children to and from school, the Student Transport Assistance Policy, administered by School Bus Services, provides travel assistance to eligible students in rural and remote Western Australia.

There are two types of travel assistance available to eligible students, which includes access to the ‘Orange’ School Bus service, or the payment of a Conveyance Allowance, or a combination of both, to assist with subsidising the cost of private vehicle travel.

To be eligible for Transport Assistance, a rural student attending a mainstream school must, under normal circumstances:

  • Be enrolled at their Nearest Appropriate School,
  • Be enrolled in a pre-compulsory or compulsory education period,
  • Regularly attend their school and use the 'Orange' School Bus approved for that student,.
  • Reside more than 4.5 km from their school, and
  • Reside outside designated Public Transport Area.

Enrolment at Nearest Appropriate School

To be eligible for Transport Assistance a student must be attending their nearest appropriate school. This means:

  • In the case of government schools, one that provides an appropriate year of study for the student.
  • In the case of non-government schools, one that provides an appropriate year of study for the student and also provides an appropriate religious denomination or ethos for that student.

Please note:

Special programs or specialised subjects that may be offered by certain schools (e.g. aeronautics, cricket, and drama) are not taken into account when assessing eligibility for Transport Assistance.

Regular Attendance

Regular attendance, for Eligible Students, means the student intends to travel to and from school every day on which the school requires the student to attend, and actually travels on average at least 60% of those days.

Distance to School

Reside more than 4.5km from their school. The distance between a student’s residence and their school is measured by the shortest practical road route. Where relevant, the measurement of distance from a student’s residence is taken from the gate or point of entrance/exit on the property on which the residence stands that is nearest to the school.

Where a student has shared living arrangements, eligibility will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Equidistant Appropriate Schools

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

For more information and examples on how the nearest appropriate school policy is applied, please refer to the Student Transport Assistance Policy.

Public Transport Areas

A student must reside outside of a designated Public Transport Area to be eligible for Transport Assistance.
The Public Transport Authority designates ‘Public Transport Areas’, students living within these areas have reasonable access to a public transport network.

Students residing within these Public Transport Areas and attending mainstream schools are not eligible to any special school bus services. A concession fare rate is available for these students on the government subsidised and controlled public transport network.

WA Public Transport Area Maps

Full terms and conditions of eligibility are set out in the Student Transport Assistance Policy.

Overview

The Student Transport Assistance Policy provides Transport Assistance for eligible Rural and Regional Students to travel to their nearest appropriate school.

Types of Transport Assistance

A student entitled to Transport Assistance may receive:

  • Transport by an ‘Orange’ School Bus; and/or
  • A conveyance allowance, paid to the parent/carer.

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

Parents/carers of young students must be present at the bus stop until they board the bus and must be present at the bus stop when they alight from the bus. Parents/carers failure to be present and supervise these students at the bus stop each morning and afternoon without good reason may have their Transport Assistance withdrawn.

Further detail surrounding the Student Transport Assistance Policy framework principles and objectives can be found here.

Year 11 and 12 Students

All rural students that have local district high schools, are provided with the choice of transport assistance to senior high schools for Year 11 and 12 (90 minute rule to apply).

A choice of transport assistance is provided to all rural secondary students in Years 11 and 12 who:

  • Enrol outside their local public secondary school to participate in curriculum pathways and programs to suit their specific needs (e.g. to attend senior colleges such as Manea College, Mandurah Senior Campus); or
  • Engage in an acceptable alternative education program with Notices of Arrangement (NOA) that includes full-time TAFE/RTO, or a part-time school/part-time TAFE/RTO requirement. This includes eligible non-government school students with NOA but excludes any students at government or non-government schools undertaking full-time employment. Complimentary passenger status may be offered to students undertaking traineeship/apprentices attending TAFE/RTO.
  • Formal Exemption from enrolment re-engaging a student with education in an approved education or training program

In any of these instances, the application must include the letter of approval for the NOA, exemption, or other supporting evidence from the Department of Education. For Curriculum Pathways Programs, please use this form.

A Notice of Arrangement issued by the Department of Education needs to be produced for all government and non-government students engaged in an acceptable alternative education program under the Raised School Leaving Age (RSLA) will be necessary to support the student transport assistance application.

Year 7 to 10 Students

A choice of transport assistance is provided to all rural secondary students in Years 7 to 10 who meet other eligibility criteria and are selected for:

  • Approved Specialist Programs (ASPs) applied only to ASPs. approved and published by the Department of Education.
  • Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) programs, to select schools

These applications must include a signed letter of acceptance from the School Principal or Department of Education.

Kindergarten Students

Eligible kindergarten students may be entitled to transport assistance.

Note that approval of a younger student’s entitlement to travel on an 'Orange' School Bus does not imply that it would be appropriate for the student to travel unaccompanied.

For younger students, it is the responsibility for the parent/carer to decide whether the student is capable of school bus travel. Parent/carer responsibility acknowledgement required for transport assistance applications. If the decision is the student is not capable, conveyance allowance is available if eligible.


Full terms and conditions of eligibility are set out in the Student Transport Assistance Policy.


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