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.