school travel policy

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Home to school travel policy - consultation

North Yorkshire Council has a statutory responsibility to provide travel assistance from home to school for eligible children. This consultation runs until 5pm on Friday 26 April 2024.

Introduction

The council sets out its current policy in a document that is called the North Yorkshire Council home to school transport policy This was previously subject to consultation and implemented in 2019.

The current population at compulsory school age (5 to 16) of schools in North Yorkshire is c.75000 pupils and the number of those accessing free home to school transport is c.10500. Therefore, it can be said that the council’s policy and provision of free transport services is currently a factor for broadly 14% of the total pupil population aged 5-16 (5% Primary; 25% Secondary), and for c.86% it is not. The overall cost to the council of the provision of home to school travel is significant and rising at pace.

In June 2023 (with minor revisions in January 2024) the department for education published revised statutory guidance covering travel to school for children of compulsory school age travel to school for children of compulsory school age.

The revised guidance was not a change in legislation, but it provided both clarity on areas that were considered open to interpretation and also further direction to councils on how to deliver additional requirements for eligible children.

The council is consulting now on a proposed new home to school travel policy for North Yorkshire to ensure compliance with the new statutory guidance. The consultation stage draft of the proposed new policy constitutes a significant re-write of the current policy to more closely align with the language, style and content of the guidance.

This consultation also includes a review of the discretionary areas of the council's current policy, that is those existing provisions that are above and beyond the statutory requirements of the guidance.

Consultation content

This consultation document sets out the council's proposals and includes:

• financial background
• proposals regarding discretionary elements
• the proposed home to school travel policy – key differences
• information regarding policy implementation
• information about the equalities impact assessment
• consultees and timescale

This document should be read in conjunction with:

• the department for education statutory guidance for travel to school for children of compulsory school age
• the current home to school and college transport policy
• the consultation draft of the proposed new home to school travel policy for North Yorkshire  
• the frequently asked questions document
• home to school travel consultation – data model summary - January 2024 analysis - update pending

Out-of-scope

There are two policy elements that are to be out-of-scope for this consultation:

• transport provision at Post 16 - there is a separate North Yorkshire Council Post 16 transport policy statement 2023-2024 that is supported by stand-alone department for education guidance
• the council will wait for the update to that department for education guidance, which is anticipated later in 2024, before considering consultation on any Post 16 policy changes
• sale of spare seats via paid travel permits – this is closely linked to Post 16 arrangements as all Post 16 eligibility is on a paid basis
• the council will also wait for the update to the department for education Post 16 guidance before considering consultation on any policy changes regarding spare seats

The annual review of the subsidised charging rate for Post 16 and spare seats will take place as usual in Spring 2024, and the revised rates will apply to the 2024/25 academic year.

Part 1 – financial background

The cost of providing home to school travel is the third largest item of revenue expenditure for the council (behind adult social care and waste management). The total expenditure is projected to stand at c.£42m for the current financial year and this has more than doubled since 2015-16. The council is one of the highest spending local authorities in the country on home to school transport. The following table shows the total expenditure levels over time, together with a breakdown for each type of provision:

The increase in expenditure levels for school transport is broadly driven by two elements. Firstly, an increase in the number of eligible children. This is particularly relevant for specialist provision expenditure as the number of children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan and are eligible for transport has increased by 47% from 1,203 pupils to 1,772 pupils since 2018/19. The second is the operational cost of providing the services to maintain the required network of school transport for all school types.

The statutory requirements in the guidance around pupils with mobility, medical and Special Educational Needs or Disability (SEND) (described in Part 3) are likely to increase the number of pupils who meet eligibility criteria and potentially lead to increased expenditure.

The council faces financial challenges in common with many local authorities. The financial position for school travel is considerable and a further rise in expenditure can be foreseen. This consultation therefore includes an examination of what changes could possibly be implemented in the new policy that would have the potential to reduce expenditure.

Part 2 - discretionary areas of the home to school travel policy

Discretionary areas that the council is consulting on:

A. Retention of early eligibility in the reception year

Under our current policy, travel assistance is awarded to eligible pupils from the start of Reception year. This is above and beyond the requirements of the department for education guidance which only requires that assistance be provided from the term following the fifth birthday (compulsory school age). This existing provision for ‘early eligibility’ assists families and aids the administration of the council's transport services for the whole academic year.

The council is proposing to keep this provision in the future travel policy.

B. Retention of extended eligibility in Year 3

Under our current policy there is continuation of the 2 miles statutory walking distance criterion until the end of the academic year (Year 3) instead of ceasing on the child’s eight birthday. This is above and beyond the requirements of the department for education guidance.

This existing provision avoids disruption to a child’s education during an academic year. It assists families and aids the administration of the council's transport services for the whole academic year.

C. Amendment to the main eligibility criterion to be ‘nearest school (with places available)’ to match the statutory requirement

Our current home to school transport policy states that:

Free transport is provided to pupils from the start of reception year to the catchment school or the nearest school to their home address where the walking distance is:

• over 2 miles (until the end of the school year in which a pupil turns 8)
• over 3 miles (if aged 8 and over)

The statutory requirement confirmed by the department for education guidance 2023 is for transport to be provided to the nearest suitable school (with places available).

The main eligibility criterion within our current home to school transport policy is therefore above and beyond the requirements of the statutory guidance which only requires that transport be provided to the nearest suitable school (with places available).

The council is proposing to amend this criterion to match the statutory requirement, meaning that in future eligibility on catchment grounds would no longer apply.

The application of the current home to school transport policy means that children can have eligibility for transport to more than one school i.e. where their catchment school is not the nearest to their home address. However, the proposed policy change would mean that children would only have eligibility to one school, that being the nearest school to the home address (with places available). Please see the FAQs for more information on this proposal.

The council would expect to realise a financial benefit over time through this proposed change: transport costs in the future would be less than if the policy continued as it is.

Analysis undertaken in autumn 2023 on a large sample of currently eligible travellers suggested that the annual saving at the end of the policy transition period (when the new policy applies to all) on a like for like basis could be up to £2.82m. This figure is based on a number of assumptions, and much will depend on the extent to which the change in the transport arrangements influences future parental preference for schools, and that is difficult to predict with any certainty.

Further data and analysis on the potential localised impact of the policy is included in a separate document in this consultation.

D. Removal of eligibility on the basis on 50/50 second address

The current policy provision allows for transport to be provided at full cost recovery to a second address where a child lives with each parent or guardian for 50% of the school term time. This is above and beyond the requirements of the department for education guidance which has no expectation of provision to a second address.

Experience has shown that parents do not pursue this option once they are made aware of the cost, and there are currently no children that are being transported on this basis.

The council is proposing to remove this provision in the future travel policy to bring greater clarity to its position on this issue.

E. Removal of eligibility for the primary phase on low-income denominational grounds

Under the current policy free transport is provided to the nearest suitable primary school parents prefer because of their religion or belief, where the distance from home to school is more than two miles but not more than five miles. There is currently very low incidence of children being eligible for transport under this provision.

This policy provision is above and beyond the department for education statutory guidance which only has a requirement for eligibility at secondary phase on these grounds and not for primary phase.

The council is proposing to remove this element in the future travel policy to bring greater clarity to its position on this issue.

F. Removal of blanket eligibility to transport support for 2 days SEND transitions 

This current policy provision is a general approach to travel as part of transition arrangements which in practice has been found unfit for purpose. This element of the policy has not been reviewed since 2008.

The council is proposing that travel on transition is assessed on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the Education, Health and Care Plan.

Part 3 - home to school transport policy – key differences

Read the   consultation draft of the proposed new home to school travel policy (pdf / 571 KB) . The updated department for education guidance included a checklist for councils to work towards when reviewing and updating home to school travel policies. The council has reflected and updated its policy in line with this checklist.

SEND, medical and mobility needs  

One of the key areas where the updated guidance provides clarity concerns the eligibility of children with SEND, medical and mobility needs. It sets out that a child does not need to:

• have an education health and care plan
• have travel to school specified in their education health and care plan if they have one
• attend a special school
• live beyond the statutory walking distance

The guidance describes that “local authorities will need to assess eligibility on the grounds of special educational needs, disability or mobility problems on a case-by-case basis.”

This has potential implications for the numbers of children requesting and/or requiring assessment of eligibility. In the current policy this assessment is currently only undertaken following the issuing of an education health and care plan.

The consultation draft of the proposed new home to school travel policy sets out the council's proposals regarding these elements.

The table below highlights the other key differences in the proposed new policy, including the discretionary areas already described:

Part 4 – information regarding policy implementation

The policy publication is linked to the school admissions round, therefore any changes to the travel policy would apply to new admission and/or travel applications received on or after 1 September 2024 and would affect new entrants to schools (Reception and Year 7) with effect from September 2025.

Pupils in the current admissions round 2024/2025 and those who apply for a school place prior to September 2024 would not be impacted.

Transport eligibility awarded prior to September 2024 would be honoured (effectively protected from subsequent policy changes) under the current policy, unless there was a change of circumstance for a pupil which required a reassessment of eligibility. The department for education guidance states:

Wherever possible, local authorities should phase in changes so that children who begin attending a school under one set of travel arrangements continue to benefit from those arrangements until they leave that school.

Part 5 - information about the equalities impact assessment

An equalities impact assessment was included in the report dated 23 January 2024 that secured approval for this consultation. This document will be updated in light of comments received through the consultation process and considered further by councillors before a decision is made.

Part 6 – consultees and timescale

This is an open consultation, but we will ensure that the following groups are contacted directly:

• young people (contacted through schools)
• parents and carers
• schools, including governors and staff
• other neighbouring local authorities
• local members of parliament
• North Yorkshire councillors
• parish councils

This consultation opened on 19 February and will close on 26 April 2024 at 5pm .

All responses received by the closing date will be anonymised and included in a report to the council's executive for consideration at their meeting in June 2024.

The executive will review the consultation feedback and decide on their recommendations for the council's new home to school travel policy, which would move forward for determination at the council meeting in July 2024.

Please give your feedback on these proposals by 26 April 2024 by filling in our questionnaire online:

Home to school travel survey

If you need to fill out a paper copy of the questionnaire, please call the customer service centre on 03001 312 131

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You may also contact International SOS by phone at +1-617-998-0000 or through the Assistance App .

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Access your International Emergency Management Team (IEMT) portal for information.

Graduate Student Travel Policy

Graduate & professional student international travel policy.

This policy applies to travel with Harvard sponsorship and has been adopted by each of the graduate and professional Schools. Travel with Harvard sponsorship is travel or related activities involving academic work qualifying for Harvard credit, funded in whole or in part by Harvard, or organized or accompanied by a Harvard faculty or staff member acting in a Harvard capacity. Contact your School’s official if you have questions about this policy or your School-specific requirements.

Harvard University is committed to the safety of our students, wherever their intellectual pursuits may lead them. Physical safety is a necessary premise to Harvard’s core values of “free expression, free inquiry, intellectual honesty, respect for the dignity of others, and openness to constructive change.” (University-Wide Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, adopted by the Governing Boards in 1970 and affirmed in 1977.) Harvard provides many resources to student travelers, some of which are described below. You’re expected to use those resources and others to make prudent, independent judgments about your safety and to take reasonable precautions, based on a thorough and honest assessment of the risks at your destination. When travel is Harvard-sponsored as defined above, the University has a special interest in overseeing your safety.

Global Support Services maintains travel risk ratings for high-risk, elevated-risk, moderate-risk, and low-risk countries and regions. These categories of countries and regions are the destinations directly affected by this policy. The risk rating lists are updated twice annually and as needed based on world events.

If you're traveling to high-risk regions with Harvard sponsorship, you're required to complete the following steps. These steps are also recommended for all travelers to high-risk regions, whether or not the travel is sponsored by Harvard:

• Typically one month prior to travel, submit a Travel Safety Questionnaire to our International Safety and Security team. We’ll share your questionnaire with the designated School official .
• Depending on the travel, we may request a follow-up consultation, usually a brief phone call.
• Based on our recommendations, and in consultation with you and any involved faculty, the designated School official may require additional safety measures and/or trip adjustments as a condition of receiving Harvard funding, credit, or other sponsorship. In exceptional cases where appropriate risk mitigation is found too costly or impractical, this may have the effect of deferring or canceling the trip.

Your School's decision regarding your travel will ordinarily consider your training and experience and the appropriate balance between safety concerns and the academic value of the project, consistent with the School’s risk tolerance, taking into account any alternative means to reach the academic objective.

Sometimes a country or region faces a significant safety deterioration while you're in country. In those cases, our International Safety and Security team will assess the risks of remaining in the country and the risks of departure, consulting with you directly, if appropriate, and will make a recommendation to the designated School official. The University and the School reserve the right to require you to leave a high-risk country as a condition of maintaining Harvard sponsorship.

Harvard recognizes and respects that students’ risk tolerances vary. You (and any student) may decline to travel to a particular place, or to remain there, if you have justifiable fears for your personal safety. Harvard and individual faculty and staff shall respect the decision and not pressure you to decide otherwise. This provision may apply whether or not Harvard has classified the place as high-risk.

Notify your designated School official or the Vice Provost for International Affairs if you believe there has been a violation of this policy.

Before traveling abroad, review the Travel section of our website to:

• Register your itinerary with International SOS.
• Review the student pre-departure requirements and country-specific safety information.
• Consult the Harvard GSS Travel Risk Ratings.

Some Schools have additional requirements or expectations for your travel.

Reporting Incidents Abroad

If you experience or witnesses a serious medical or safety incident while abroad, report the event to help us protect the safety and security of the community and ensure you receive the proper support.

Reportable incidents include illnesses and injuries (needing a health care professional), accidents, crimes of all kinds, missing persons, harassment, property damage, and incidents that forced a significant itinerary change.

• Call local police, fire, or medical responders, if appropriate (local equivalent of "911"). Review the U.S. State Department’s global "911" list .
• Contact International SOS by phone at +1-617-998-0000 , or start a chat or phone call through the Assistance App .

If not urgent

Report the incident within 72 hours to International SOS.

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.)

Contact : Julia Smeliansky, [email protected]

Harvard Business School (HBS)

Contact : Jean Cunningham, [email protected]

Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD)

Contact : Janice Gilkes, [email protected]

Harvard Divinity School (HDS)

Contact : Karin Grundler-Whitacre, [email protected]

Harvard Graduate School of Education (GSE)

Contact : Kevin Boehm, [email protected]

Harvard Extension School (HES)

Admitted degree candidates only

Contact : Rob Neugeboren, [email protected]

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)

Contact : Melissa Wojciechowski St. John, [email protected]

Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS)

Contact : Shelby Johnson, [email protected]

Harvard Law School (HLS)

• Requirements : HLS International Travel Requirements
• Contact : Sara Zucker, [email protected]

Harvard Medical School (HMS)

Contact : Robert Dickson, [email protected]

Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM)

Contact : Jane Barrow, [email protected]

Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Contact : Leah Kane, [email protected]

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The Relative Risks of School Travel: A National Perspective and Guidance for Local Community Risk Assessment -- Special Report 269 (2002)

Chapter: 1 introduction, 1 introduction.

C hildren in the United States travel to and from school and school-related activities by a variety of modes, including school bus, other types of buses (e.g., transit, motorcoach), rail and trolley, bicycle, walking, privately owned and operated vehicle (e.g., automobile, passenger van, sport utility vehicle, pickup truck), and vehicle for hire (e.g., taxicab, van service). Little is known, however, about the comparative safety of these various modes for trips to and from school and school-related activities. The purpose of this report is to assess the relative risks of each major mode used for school travel and to provide insights into the potential effects on safety of changes in the distribution of trips by mode.

Nature of the Problem

On average, 20 school-age children—5 school bus occupants and 15 pedestrians— die each year in school bus–related crashes. Of the 15 school bus–related pedestrian fatalities, two-thirds of the victims are struck by the school bus itself, while the remaining third are struck by other vehicles, many of whose drivers pass the school bus illegally while it is stopped to load or unload students. Comparable statistics regarding the safety of students being transported by other modes are not readily available. National statistics for the period 1991–1999 indicate, however, that an average of 810 school-age children were fatally injured annually during normal school travel hours (weekdays 6 a.m. to 8:59 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 4:59 p.m.) 1 in typical school months (September through mid-June), while approximately 153,000 school-age children received nonfatal injuries. Just over 3.5 percent of these injured children were passengers on school buses, while only 0.025 percent were student pedestrians injured in school bus–related crashes, and 72 percent were riding in motor vehicles that were not buses of any type.

The way in which children travel to and from school is influenced in part by school transportation policies and guidelines developed at the federal, state, and local levels; in part by parental choice; and in some cases, particularly with older schoolchildren, by student choice. At each level, decisions that are made can have a profound effect on the risks incurred. For example, students who live closer to the school than the minimum walking distance are necessarily depen-

dent on other travel modes—most commonly walking, bicycling, or driving or riding in a passenger vehicle. Since the various travel modes are associated with different safety risks, any shift in modes—e.g., from school buses to walking, bicycling, or riding in a passenger vehicle—that results from changing the minimum walking distance will have an effect on school travel safety.

Federal, state, and local lawmakers, as well as state and local administrators who implement school-related transportation policies, place great importance on the safety of children traveling to and from school. However, if adequate information about the risks of alternative modes is not available when policy decisions are made or if this information is ignored, policies and regulations designed to support this goal may in fact increase risks. Further, the data most useful to federal lawmakers may not be the same as those most useful for state and local policy makers (including state legislators and school board members). And the data most helpful to local administrators (e.g., local school district officials, school principals, transportation directors, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act coordinators) may be quite different from those needed by others involved in making school-related transportation decisions (e.g., parents, students), often at a student-specific level.

Legislative History

Faced with reduced funding and pressures to spend available funds on non-transportation-related items, some school districts and transit agencies are examining the potential for relying more heavily on transit services for school transportation. Transit services in large urban areas have long been used to transport students, particularly those in high school and junior high school. Some smaller communities, particularly in rural areas, have integrated a variety of pupil transportation, social service transportation, and public transit services to improve efficiency and lower costs. Similarly, school districts and elected officials in other communities have begun to explore the potential for coordinating transportation services for students with those for the elderly, the disabled, and other special-needs groups.

Such approaches have been debated in several state legislatures during the last 20 years. At the behest of its legislature, for example, the state of Iowa sponsored six pilot projects during the 1980s to test various models of coordinated service. Likewise, the state of Washington provided grants to 12 communities for such projects in 1999 and 2000, although not all of these projects involved transit or pupil transportation services.

Many small urban, suburban, and rural transit agencies, experiencing declining ridership and increasing costs, are attracted to the possibility of adding schoolchildren to their ridership. Similarly, many communities without transit services view coordination with pupil transportation services as an opportunity to provide service to other riders for whom public transportation would otherwise be unaffordable.

In this context, hearings in the U.S. Senate in April 1996 on school transportation safety raised questions regarding what is known about the safety of

children who use public transit to travel to and from school. It was estimated that at the time, approximately 20 percent of school children in California were using public transit or paratransit to travel to and from school, and that in other states (e.g., Ohio), the use of public transit for this purpose was increasing. During the Senate hearings, interest in the safety of students traveling by school bus versus transit bus was broadened to include other, non-bus modes used to transport students to and from school. The focus was also expanded to include school-related trips in addition to those taken between home and school. It was noted that safety comparisons among the various modes could not be made because the data needed for such comparisons were not readily available.

In 1998, a provision of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) (see the appendix ) mandated that the Transportation Research Board (TRB) undertake a study “of the safety issues attendant to the transportation of school children to and from school and school-related activities by various transportation modes.” In the process, the study was to take into account available crash-injury data, as well as vehicle design and driver-training requirements, routing, and operational factors that affect safety. If crash-injury data were found to be unavailable or insufficient, a new data collection regimen and implementation guidelines were to be recommended.

Since the Senate hearings were held, interest in the issue of school transportation safety has been heightened even further by reports and recommendations issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB 1998; NTSB 1999a; NTSB 1999b; NTSB 2000) and others, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) (NHTSA 1998) and the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) (TRB 1999). Yet many questions remain unanswered.

CHARGE TO THE COMMITTEE

The Committee on School Transportation Safety was formed to conduct the study mandated by TEA-21. The committee was charged to address safety issues related to the transportation of school-age children to and from school and school-related activities by various modes, and in the process to review available injury, fatality, and exposure data. The committee was also tasked to examine other, related factors, including operating characteristics, vehicle design, and driver and passenger training. In addition, the committee was directed to assess the efficacy of drawing conclusions from the available data, given the statistical confidence in the data and their relevance to the issues being addressed. The study charge included considering the basic characteristics of the modes used for student travel; their operational differences; and the infrastructure, environmental, and other conditions that affect them. If data were deemed unavailable or insufficient, the committee was asked to recommend new data collection methods and implementation guidelines. In undertaking these tasks, the committee was to examine both occupant and nonoccupant (i.e., pedestrian) injury and fatality rates, taking into account the behavioral and developmental characteristics of children, which affect their travel skills and vulnerability.

STUDY SCOPE

In conducting this study, the committee did not specifically address issues and risks associated with the transportation of special-needs students or infants, toddlers, and preschool children. These two categories of children often have unique needs and must be considered individually. For example, children with special needs (such as those in wheelchairs) may need to be picked up directly at their doorway and be attended to while en route to school. Infants, toddlers, and preschool children must ride in child safety seats (even in school buses), a requirement that presents unique problems based on the type of vehicle being used. The committee also did not examine separately the risks associated with transportation to and from nonpublic schools because information about pupil transportation for such schools is not available in many states. However, given the committee’s use of the concept of normal school travel hours, which is based on time of day without respect to purpose of trip, the exposure data employed for the study (i.e., number of trips and passenger-miles) include travel for all children between 5 and 18 years of age, regardless of type of school or purpose of trip, during this period.

The committee also did not examine the coordination and integration of pupil transportation and transit services. For a comprehensive discussion of issues relevant to this practice (including 15 case studies of nonurban communities in which such coordination or integration has been effected), the reader is referred to the TCRP report Integrating School Bus and Public Transportation Services in Non-Urban Communities (TRB 1999).

As noted above, the focus of this study was not restricted to children traveling to and from school, but encompassed their travel to and from school-related activities. 2 As discussed more fully in Chapters 2 and 3 , however, crash data for school-related trips—which comprise roughly 4 percent of all school transportation (R. Leeds, personal communication, Feb. 27, 2001)—are not directly available. In most instances, these data must be inferred from other information that may be recorded on police accident reports. Compounding the difficulty of drawing conclusions from such data, different types and mixes of vehicles are often used for school-related purposes, and some trips do not occur during the above-defined school travel hours. Hence, the data and analyses presented in this report are restricted to crashes that occurred during normal school travel hours. Those school-related activity trips that occurred during normal school travel hours are included in the analyses, but could not be separated out for more focused analysis.

A recent procedural change effected in some local school districts has added to the difficulty of collecting and analyzing injury data related to school travel. Should a crash involving a school bus occur, many students may be transported to a medical facility for evaluation and later determined to have sustained minor or no injuries (L. Kostyniuk, presentation to the committee at its first meeting,

July 14, 2000). The “required medical attention” classification on the police accident report may include the total number of students transported to the hospital, or possibly all bus passengers, among them those who were not injured in any way. The result in such cases is an inflated number of reported “pupil passenger injuries.”

Furthermore, there is no documented correlation between school bus crashes and medically documented injuries at the scene. Linkage to emergency department data could provide this missing information. As noted in Special Report 222 (TRB 1989, 46):

The number of persons injured each year in school bus–related accidents and the severity of the injuries they sustain are not well known. There is no national census or representative sample of school bus– related accidents, no systematic count of injuries suffered in these accidents, and no rigorous assessment of the degree to which passengers are injured. In the absence of such information, only gross estimates of the frequency and severity of injuries resulting from school bus–related accidents are available.

This discrepancy is also true of other modes used to transport students. Though the committee acknowledges the gaps in and poor quality of some of the data, it believes insights can be gleaned through analysis of existing datasets. Indeed, for this study, the committee used existing data to refine risk estimates so they can be used to inform policy discussions.

Finally, the committee recognizes that personal safety or security issues are important to a comprehensive assessment of student transportation safety. The major concern is that trips to and from school may place students at risk from older, larger students or predatory adults on all modes of travel (TRB 1999). However, an assessment of these issues is beyond the scope of this report.

ANALYZING THE SAFETY OF SCHOOL TRAVEL

Ideally, a detailed risk analysis should be used to aid decision makers at all levels of government in making choices about school travel alternatives and establishing policies and guidelines to effect such choices. A risk analysis that identifies crash scenarios, probabilities of occurrence, and potential outcomes can enable decision makers to identify and evaluate effective and efficient risk mitigation options and to choose those options that minimize risk commensurate with their practicality and affordability. To conduct this type of analysis, one must identify the various modes used for school travel, obtain and analyze quantitative data on the relative safety of these modes, obtain better injury data, identify the risk factors associated with travel to and from school, develop a perspective that integrates the many components of the school transportation system, and apply a risk management framework. Such a comprehensive effort was not possible for the committee. Instead, this report presents an effective and feasible risk management framework, whereby modal comparisons using a

quantitative risk assessment based on national statistics are used to identify important risks, and checklists, based on empirical research and recognized best practices, are used to suggest options for reducing these risks commensurate with local needs and resources.

Modes Used for School Travel

Depending on the level of detail used, it is possible to define many travel modes for children going to and from school (e.g., sport utility vehicle, pickup truck, taxi, subway, 10-passenger bus). For many of these individual modes, however, crash, injury, fatality, trip, and other data needed to make relative safety comparisons are unavailable, insufficient, inadequate, or impossible to correlate. Thus the committee grouped the modes used for school travel into six broad categories for which sufficient data could be obtained to support the required analyses: 3

School bus —A vehicle designed for carrying more than 10 persons, 4 including the driver, that is operated by a public or private school or a private school bus contractor for the purpose of transporting children (prekindergarten through grade 12) to and from school and school-related activities (excluding chartered 5 and transit buses). A school bus must meet all applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSSs).

Other bus —A vehicle designed to carry more than 10 persons, including the driver. Included are transit buses, coaches or motorcoaches, and other bus types that generally provide transportation services under contract. A transit bus is defined as a bus with front and back-center doors and low-back seating, which is operated on a fixed schedule and route to provide public transportation at designated bus stops. Other buses meet all applicable FMVSSs, but do not meet school bus FMVSSs.

Passenger vehicle 6 with adult driver (i.e., driver age 19 and over) —A motorized vehicle owned or operated by an individual or company that is designed for carrying fewer than 10 passengers, goods, or equipment. For purposes of this report, this category includes passenger cars, passenger vans (both minivans and full-size vans), sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, other trucks, recreational vehicles, and taxicabs (vehicles for hire that carry passengers).

Passenger vehicle with teen driver (i.e., driver below age 19) —A motorized vehicle driven by a driver younger than 19 years of age and designed for carrying fewer than 10 passengers, goods, or equipment. For purposes of this report, this category includes the same vehicle types cited for the preceding category.

Bicycle —Includes all pedalcycles (one, two, or three wheels). Scooters are not included in this category, but in the next.

Walking —Travel from one location to another on foot; also includes scooters, rollerblading, and skateboarding.

Although the detailed analyses discussed in Chapter 3 make modal comparisons only among the six classes of modes identified above, this is not to imply that other modes are not used for travel to and from school. These other modes include passenger rail (heavy rail, light rail, and trolley service) operated either underground (i.e., subway), above ground (i.e., elevated), or “at grade.”

It is also important to note that, although students often go directly to school in the morning, they may take very different trips returning home in the afternoon. Not only may the modes used be different, but the routing, timing, and actual destinations may vary from day to day and season to season across the school year because of extracurricular activities, jobs, friends, and the like. This variation greatly complicates the analysis and makes it difficult to define what is meant by a school trip.

Moreover, most trips to and from school are divided into segments that use different modes. For example, a student who rides a school bus or other bus to and from school must also get to and from the bus stop. These trip segments are often made by walking or riding in a passenger vehicle. Since each of these segments involves a different mode, each has unique risks. Therefore, different means of reducing or managing the risks associated with the various trip segments will be needed.

Quantitative Data Analyses

NHTSA has stated that “school bus transportation is one of the safest forms of transportation in the United States” (NHTSA 1998, 1). This statement is based in part on a strict comparison of the fatality rates (fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled) for school buses versus all other vehicles used for all purposes. Though the fatality rate per vehicle-mile is the most commonly used measure of motor vehicle safety, by itself it does not provide sufficient insight into the relative safety of school buses and other modes used for school travel, including other vehicle types, bicycling, and walking. To perform this type of analysis, which is central to the committee’s charge, in-depth analyses using other risk measures (e.g., injuries or fatalities per student-mile or student trip) were conducted using the available quantitative data.

The national crash databases that the committee found useful for these analyses were the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for fatality counts and the General Estimates System (GES) for injury counts. These databases include only data on crashes in which a motor vehicle is involved. The committee found no accessible, comprehensive national databases that reflect pedestrian and bicycling fatalities and injuries not involving a motor vehicle. Despite this and other limitations of these databases, which are discussed in Chapter 2 , FARS and GES do provide insights into the relative safety of walking and bicycling when they interact with the other modes.

To provide a context (in terms of exposure) for the information obtained from FARS and GES, the committee used data from the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS). This survey contains information on the 1-day travel behavior of members of thousands of households in the United States. It can be used to obtain national-level estimates of the number of trips taken and number of miles traveled by children during school travel hours, broken down by mode, age of students, and geographic location (urban versus rural). The committee conducted its analyses using the 1991–1999 data contained in FARS and GES to obtain national estimates of the numbers of fatalities and injuries, respectively, among students traveling during normal school travel hours (as defined above), using the same categorizations as those employed by NPTS. The results of these analyses are presented in detail in Chapter 3 .

Risk Factors Related to School Travel Safety

The committee identified five categories of risk factors associated with student travel to and from school: ( a ) human, ( b ) vehicular, ( c ) operational, ( d ) infrastructure/environmental, and ( e ) societal. Human factors for both passengers and drivers include elements such as age, experience, training, and qualifications. Vehicle factors include mass; design characteristics (e.g., structure, suspension systems); color and conspicuity; and vehicle operating characteristics, such as power steering and braking. Operational factors include characteristics of the trip itself, such as trip length, time of day, origin, and destination, as well as policy and procedural factors, such as training, monitoring, evaluation, supervision, and enforcement. Infrastructure/environmental factors include weather, roadway conditions, and traffic. Finally, societal factors include general health and fitness issues, as well as quality of life, security, liability, and diversity. All of these factors have implications for the safety of each mode used for student travel to and from school. To highlight these implications and to help decision makers recognize opportunities for risk reduction, the committee consolidated important risk factors into safety checklists for each mode. Discussion of these risk factors and the safety checklists are presented in Chapter 4 .

System Perspective

To determine how to maximize safe and efficient school travel, the complete system, including the vehicle, the driver, the traveler, and the route or path, must be considered. Doing so provides a balanced view of the interaction among the various components involved in school travel. To apply this approach, the many complex relationships among modes, particular vehicles, passengers, drivers, and the operating environment must be understood. A range of other factors must also be considered, including safety, security, and other societal concerns (e.g., liability, equity); policy directives, planning, and leadership; infrastructure and environmental conditions (including issues related to the facility or school); and vehicle design and equipment. Moreover, managing the risks associated with school travel requires involvement and a shared commitment among the various interested parties—policy makers, transportation plan-

ners and system design experts, traffic engineers and public works officials, school administrators, transportation officials, management and staff, parents, and students. Effective communication among these parties, a well-documented training program, and procedures for managing risk are also necessary.

Risk Management Framework

A risk management framework that combines quantitative risk assessment with use of the more qualitative safety checklists described above and that reflects a system perspective can be used to examine the safety of all major modes used for school and school-related travel. Using this framework, the safety/risk issues related to travel for school and school-related activities can be identified, prioritized, and used to make informed policy decisions at the federal, state, and local levels. The committee believes implementation of this framework can help ensure that new policies will be justifiable, well focused, and unlikely to cause changes in the distribution of travel modes that will unintentionally increase risk.

ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT

In this report, crash and injury data and risk estimates for school transportation by the six categories of modes detailed above are presented. Key risk factors are summarized, and potential safety countermeasures to address these factors are identified, although recommendations about specific countermeasures are not made. A brief description of the national datasets (NPTS, GES, and FARS) used by the committee in its risk assessment is provided in Chapter 2 . In Chapter 3 , risk measures based on injury and fatality rates calculated using the national data described in Chapter 2 are developed. In Chapter 4 , five categories of risk factors associated with school travel are presented, and safety checklists that can be used by decision makers to identify intervention opportunities for addressing those factors are provided. Three scenarios involving hypothetical schools are offered in Chapter 5 to demonstrate how quantitative analyses in the risk management framework can be applied and to illustrate how changes in transportation policy can affect the overall risk for a particular school. The committee’s findings and its recommendations to federal, state, and local policy makers and administrators for reducing risks and enhancing safety for students traveling to and from school are contained in Chapter 6 .

Abbreviations

NCST National Conference on School Transportation

NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

NTSB National Transportation Safety Board

TRB Transportation Research Board

NCST. 2000. National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures, 2000 Revised Edition. Proceedings of the Thirteenth National Conference on School Transportation. Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg.

NHTSA. 1998. School Bus Safety: Safe Passage for America’s Children. Washington, D.C.

NTSB. 1998. Transit Bus Safety Oversight. Highway Special Investigation Report NTSB/SIR-98/03. Washington, D.C.

NTSB. 1999a. Bus Crashworthiness Issues. Highway Special Investigation Report NTSB/SIR-99/04. Washington, D.C.

NTSB. 1999b. Pupil Transportation in Vehicles Not Meeting Federal Standard School Bus Standards. Highway Special Investigation Report NTSB/SIR-99/02. Washington, D.C.

NTSB. 2000. Putting Children First: Child and Youth Initiative to Achieve One Level of Safety for All Children. Report NTSB/SR-00/02. Washington, D.C.

TRB. 1989. Special Report 222: Improving School Bus Safety. National Research Council, Washington, D.C.

TRB. 1999. TCRP Report 56: Integrating School Bus and Public Transportation Services in Non-Urban Communities. National Research Council, Washington, D.C.

TRB Special Report 269 - The Relative Risks of School Travel: A National Perspective and Guidance for Local Community Risk Assessment presents a method to estimate, on a per-mile and per-trip basis, the relative risks that students face in traveling to and from school by walking, bicycling, riding in passenger vehicles with adult drivers, riding in passenger vehicles with teenage drivers, or taking a bus.� These estimated risk measures can assist localities in developing policies to improve the safety of students traveling to school and in evaluating policies that affect mode choices by students and their parents.� The report also includes checklists of actions to reduce the risks associated with each mode of school travel.

Children in the United States travel to and from school and school-related activities by a variety of modes. Because parents and their school-age children have a limited understanding of the risks associated with each mode, it is unlikely that these risks greatly influence their school travel choices. Public perceptions of school transportation safety are heavily influenced by school bus (i.e., "yellow bus") services.

When children are killed or injured in crashes involving school buses, the link to school transportation appears obvious; when children are killed or injured in crashes that occur when they are traveling to or from school or school-related activities by other modes, however, the purpose of the trip is often not known or recorded, and the risks are not coded in a school-related category. Despite such limitations and the fact that estimates of the risks across school travel modes are confounded by inconsistent and incomplete data, sufficient information is available to make gross comparisons of the relative risks among modes used for school travel and to provide guidance for risk management.

Each year approximately 800 school-aged children are killed in motor vehicle crashes during normal school travel hours. This figure represents about 14 percent of the 5,600 child deaths that occur annually on U.S. roadways and 2 percent of the nation’s yearly total of 40,000 motor vehicle deaths. Of these 800 deaths, about 20 (2 percent)—5 school bus passengers and 15 pedestrians—are school bus–related. The other 98 percent of school-aged deaths occur in passenger vehicles or to pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists. A disproportionate share of these passenger vehicle–related deaths (approximately 450 of the 800 deaths, or 55 percent) occur when a teenager is driving.

At the same time, approximately 152,000 school-age children are nonfatally injured during normal school travel hours each year. More than 80 percent (about 130,000) of these nonfatal injuries occur in passenger vehicles; only 4 percent (about 6,000) are school bus–related (about 5,500 school bus passengers and 500 school bus pedestrians), 11 percent (about 16,500) occur to pedestrians and bicyclists, and fewer than 1 percent (500) are to passengers in other buses.

When school travel modes are compared, the distribution of injuries and fatalities is found to be quite different from that of trips and miles traveled. Three modes (school buses, other buses, and passenger vehicles with adult drivers) have injury estimates and fatality counts below those expected on the basis of the exposure to risk implied by the number of trips taken or student-miles traveled. For example, school buses represent 25 percent of the miles traveled by students but account for less than 4 percent of the injuries and 2 percent of the fatalities. Conversely, the other three modal classifications (passenger vehicles with teen drivers, bicycling, and walking) have estimated injury rates and fatality counts disproportionately greater than expected on the basis of exposure data. For example, passenger vehicles with teen drivers account for more than half of the injuries and fatalities, a much greater proportion than the 14–16 percent that would be expected on the basis of student-miles and trips.

Special Report 269 Summary

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High School Global Travel Programs: Increasing Access and Impact

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Editor’s Note: Rebecca LeBlond, Director, Global Citizens Program, Democracy Prep Public Schools , shares the reasons that high school study abroad can be beneficial for all students and how to make it happen.

In the winter and spring of 2018, nearly 400 students from across the seven high schools in the Democracy Prep Public Schools network traveled abroad on week-long, educator-led programs to examine global challenges through real-world experience. Destinations of the 21 distinct groups included Ecuador, France, Italy, South Africa, South Korea, and Spain. The Global Citizens Program at Democracy Prep is designed to ensure that students gain firsthand appreciation of the fact that there is no corner of the world they cannot access or in which they cannot be successful. At the same time, the program seeks to transform the idea of what is possible for educational global travel experiences in public schools. Through strategic budgeting, Democracy Prep schools are able to fund over 85 percent of the total program costs for students.

Since the first Democracy Prep high school students traveled to London in 2010, we have found, again and again, that these opportunities present both quantitative and qualitative benefits. Our hope is that, by sharing some of the lessons learned through the growth of the Global Citizens Program, others may find some inspiration to advance similar opportunities in their own schools or support the continued expansion of opportunities for high school students to participate in educational global travel, particularly for those who are underrepresented in the wider study abroad field.

Benefits of Short-Term Global Travel Programs

1. College Applications and Acceptances Democracy Prep schools place a significant emphasis on ensuring that all students are prepared for success in college. Our school culture demonstrates this emphasis in myriad ways, including with a focus on preparation to apply to college. In order to participate in a global travel program, students are required to submit an application, which includes questions loosely modeled after those found on The Common Application .

These prompts provide the opportunity for students to tell their story, demonstrate why they are the right fit for the program, what they will bring to the table, and how they will complement and enhance the overall group experience. Additionally, this application process ensures that students are not selected based solely on academic success. While 20 percent of our high school students travel abroad each year, by the time they graduate, more than 60 percent will have had at least one abroad experience. This is significant not only because 75% of Democracy Prep high school students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, but it also demonstrates that the opportunities are not solely limited to those who either can pay to participate or to those with the highest grades but also because of the impact these experience(s) may have on college acceptance rates.

Among 2018 seniors, there was a positive correlation between traveling abroad and the average number of acceptances per college application that students submitted. The average college acceptance rate was 38 percent for those who did not travel abroad versus 48 percent for those who did. Because there is a wide range in the total number of colleges a student applies to, simply counting the number of acceptances would not paint a clear enough picture as to whether travel abroad increases acceptance rates. When accounting for the range in total applications, we found that students who traveled abroad had, on average, a 10-percent higher average acceptance rate than their peers who did not travel abroad.

2. Global Mindedness In 2018, Democracy Prep’s Global Citizens Program implemented a brief assessment to measure what, if any, impact these short-term global travel experiences have on students’ global mindedness or global competence. In order to do so, we drew on questions from the 2018 OECD PISA global competence framework , specifically from the global mindedness construct. For each of the four statements below, students were asked to select one response (“strongly disagree,” “disagree,” “agree,” or “strongly agree”).

• I think of myself as a citizen of the world.
• I think my behavior can impact people in other countries.
• I can do something about the problems of the world.
• Looking after the global environment is important to me.

The gathered results demonstrated that students who traveled abroad not only predominantly agreed with the statements but that there was growth across all questions from before departure to after their return. On a four point scale, the average agreement before traveling was 3.1. Post-travel, the average increased to 3.4. Interestingly, the question that averaged the lowest overall agreement was ‘c': “I can do something about the problems of the world,” defined by PISA as the “global self-efficacy” facet of global mindedness. We do not have a clear sense of why this was the case. Thus, in future assessments we may solicit more feedback on this particular question to gain insight into a potential answer and opportunities to address this.

3. Social Capital While college acceptance percentages and global mindedness currently allow for some level of quantitative analysis, there are also qualitative benefits of cross-cultural experience that are less tangible but by no means less significant. As an article in The Atlantic examining the impact travel can have on creativity points out, “Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and integrativeness of thought, the ability to make deep connections between disparate forms.”

At Democracy Prep, we believe deeply in the benefit of global travel for the impact it has on the current and future confidence, success, career readiness, and overall social capital and well-being of our students and alumni. As first-generation college students, students of color, or students of financial need, the fact that 60 percent of Democracy Prep graduates will arrive on their college or university campus having already had at least one experience abroad cannot be underestimated. To be able to describe seeing the statue of David at the Accademia in Florence in an Intro to Art History course, for example, or to leverage their experience of service learning in Ecuador in a seminar or as part of a student club, may very well serve as a shared experience and to dispel preconceived notions about who does and does not have high school travel experience.

How to Make It Happen

How then can opportunities for all high school students, including and especially those who are traditionally underrepresented as study abroad participants, both be increased and made to be more impactful? What can other schools, districts, and educational leaders do in pursuit of further equity of opportunity? Below are some ideas and suggestions for increasing access to global travel as well as the impact for high school students. These are by no means exhaustive but include some of the lessons learned as Democracy Prep’s Global Citizens Program embarks on its tenth year of offering global travel opportunities to every high school student.

2. Require deliverables. Just as participation based on the ability to pay one’s way does not inherently or effectively contribute to an impactful group experience, limiting the program solely to direct experiences on the ground does not maximize the potential takeaways. Once accepted into a travel program at Democracy Prep, students are required to attend three to five (and often more) pre-departure workshops, which include a review of and reflection on aspects of historical, social, political, and cultural significance. In-country, daily reflections both in shared group format and in the form of journaling help solidify students’ experiences, knowledge gained, and skills developed. Upon their return, students frequently present to the wider school community or to elementary or middle school peers, reference their experiences in college application essays and interviews, and speak at enrollment and back-to-school nights for new and returning families.

3. Educator involvement. An essential component of the Global Citizens Program is the faculty and staff who serve as program leaders and chaperones with an average educator-to-student ratio of 1:5 on most programs. This allows for valuable small-group experiences and leverages the knowledge that faculty and staff have of the students, as well as their expertise as educators. In advance of departure, chaperones participate in a training that includes content about logistics, health, and safety, as well as scenario-based training exercises and an exploration of cross-cultural differences, orientation, and communication practices. In addition, faculty and staff each take on a specifically designated role (e.g., program lead, administrator, documentarian, facilitator, etc.) to ensure clarity around roles and responsibilities and maximize effectiveness.

When people think about study abroad, many likely envision an undergraduate student embarking on a traditional semester-long sojourn to a foreign institution of higher education. But as the understanding of what it means to be globally competent evolves, so to does the definition of a global experience. Similarly, as research and information continues to point to the value and importance of possessing a global mindset and intercultural skills for success, the significance and value of an experience that contributes to developing those also grows. Thus, we anticipate the expansion of opportunities to embark on a global education experience, particularly for high school students, K-12, and traditionally underrepresented students, and we welcome and encourage more schools and organizations to join us.

Connect with Democracy Prep , Heather , and the Center for Global Education on Twitter.

Photos by Democracy Prep faculty and staff and used with permission.

The opinions expressed in Global Learning are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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School Travel Planning (STP) is a community-based model for implementing active school travel that systematically addresses barriers to and incentives for walking to school. STP strengthens local commitment to active school travel.

STP is a proven cost-effective way to get more kids walking and wheeling to school . When effectively coordinated and implemented, it results in positive travel behaviour changes with health, safety, environmental, and economic benefits.

Through STP, school and community stakeholders collaborate to create and implement school-level action plans that use all of the Five E’s to:

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• Benefit-Cost Analysis Tool – Individual School
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Blog The Education Hub

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/11/03/free-school-transport-explained-eligible-free-travel/

Free school transport explained: From who’s eligible to how it works

When choosing which schools to apply for, it is important to consider how your child will get there. Some children are eligible for free travel, but this isn’t the case for everyone.

Most parents should expect to be responsible for making arrangements for their child to get to and from school.

Here, we explain everything you need to know about free school travel, from who’s eligible to how it works.

Is my child eligible for free school travel?

We set the national eligibility criteria for free travel to school and your local authority is responsible for deciding whether your child meets these criteria.

Your child is eligible if they are of compulsory school age , go to their nearest suitable school and one of the following applies:

• they are under 8 and the school is more than 2 miles away
• they are 8 or over and the school is more than 3 miles away
• they wouldn’t be able to walk there safely, even if accompanied by a parent or guardian
• they wouldn’t be able walk there because of their special educational needs, disability or a mobility problem, even if accompanied by a parent or guardian.

If the local authority decides your child would be able to walk to school if they were accompanied, the general expectation is that you will accompany them, or make other suitable arrangements. A child will not normally be eligible for free travel solely because of their parent’s work commitments or caring responsibilities.

Your child may also be entitled to free transport if you have a low family income and they are entitled to free school meals or you get the maximum Working Tax Credit and one of the following applies:

• they are aged 8 to 11, go to their nearest suitable school and it’s at least 2 miles away
• they are aged 11 to 16 and go to a school 2 to 6 miles away - if it’s one of their 3 nearest suitable schools
• they are aged 11 to 16 and go to a school 2 to 15 miles away - if it’s one you chose because of your religion or belief.

If your child doesn't meet the criteria above, you are responsible for arranging their travel to and from school. Some local authorities arrange travel for children who don’t meet the eligibility criteria, although they are not required to. Where they choose to do so, they may charge you for the cost of it.

You can find your local authority’s school travel policy through our postcode search on Gov.uk .

What is a ‘suitable’ school?

A suitable school is one that provides education appropriate to the child’s age, ability, aptitude, and any special educational needs they may have.

If your child has an Education, Health and Care plan, the school named in their plan will usually be considered their nearest suitable school for travel purposes.

What do I need to do if I think my child is eligible?

You should check your local authority website to see the school travel policy and find out how to apply.

If your child is eligible for free school travel, your local authority will make suitable travel arrangements.  For example, they might provide your child with a pass for free travel on public transport or arrange a dedicated school bus or taxi. They may expect your child to walk to a suitable pick-up point if they are able to.

My child has a special educational need or disability, what does this mean for them?

Your local authority will assess whether your child meets the eligibility criteria. They may ask for information to help them decide whether your child would be able to walk to school.

Your child doesn't need to have an Education, Health and Care plan to be eligible but having one doesn’t make your child automatically eligible.

If your child is eligible, your local authority will make suitable travel arrangements for them, taking into account their needs. It may often be the case that they share a vehicle with other children.

If they have a medical condition which may affect them on the journey, your local authority will decide what arrangements they need to make to manage this.

Your local authority may offer you a personal travel budget or mileage allowance to take your child to school yourself. Some parents prefer this, but you don’t have to accept it if you don’t want to. If you don’t accept it, the local authority will need to arrange your child’s free travel.

As your child gets older, your local authority may offer them the opportunity to take part in independent travel training.

The authority will pay for this and your child will be supported, by a trainer, to learn how to travel to school independently, for example on public transport.

Learning to travel independently is an important part of preparing a child to lead a fulfilling and active adult life. If you want to know more about independent travel training, you should contact your local authority.

What if my child spends time at more than one address?

It’s not normally possible to provide eligible children with travel to and from more than one address, for example if their parents don’t live together. Local authorities usually only arrange travel to and from a child’s main place of residence.

Your local authority’s school travel policy will explain how it decides which address they will arrange travel to.

Can I appeal the local authority’s decision?

Yes. There is an appeals process, published on the local authority’s website, for parents to follow should they want to challenge the decision about their child’s home to school travel.

If you’re not happy with the way the local authority conducts your appeal, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman may be able to investigate. Further information can be found on the LGO website .

What about young people aged 16-25?

When a young person begins post-16 education or training, the level of school travel support changes. It is for the local authority to decide the level of support they offer and these arrangements don’t have to include free or subsidised travel. More information can be found on Gov.uk .

You may also be interested in:

• Before and after school childcare: Everything you need to know about wraparound care
• Sex education: What is RSHE and can parents access curriculum materials?
• Secondary school applications deadline 2023: How and where to apply

Tags: Free school transport , free transport to school , school transport , School transport for secondary schools , School travel

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• Education, training and skills
• Running and managing a school
• School food, accommodation, transport and uniform

Home-to-school travel

Local authorities’ responsibilities when making home-to-school travel arrangements for children of compulsory school age.

Applies to England

Travel to school for children of compulsory school age.

PDF , 554 KB , 66 pages

This statutory guidance applies to local authorities.

It may also be of interest to:

• parents and organisations that advise parents
• other organisations involved in home-to-school travel (for example, transport operators)

Statutory guidance sets out what local authorities must do to comply with the law. You should follow the guidance unless you have a very good reason not to.

Updated the guidance to make minor clarifications. This includes updates about schools that arrange home-to-school travel for their pupils, children with education, health and care plans, and how local authorities should determine a child’s nearest school.

The statutory guidance has been updated to help local authorities perform their functions in relation to home to school travel for children of compulsory school age.

Extended the review date to 2017.

First published.

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• Oncological Sciences

Benefits & Support

School of medicine, on this page, information for current students.

In addition to the policies discussed below, students must follow University of Utah policies and regulations, as outlined in the following resources:

Safety and Wellness

Your safety and well-being are our top priority. In an emergency, dial 911 or seek a nearby emergency phone (throughout campus). Report any crimes or suspicious people to 801-585-COPS(2677); this number will dispatch an officer at the  University of Utah Department of Public Safety  (DPS). In addition, if you would like to be escorted by a security officer to or from areas on campus  at any time , DPS will help — just give a call.

Counseling and Support Services

The University of Utah seeks to provide a safe and healthy experience for students, employees, and others who make use of campus facilities.  In support of this goal, the University has established confidential resources and support services to assist students who may have been affected by harassment, abusive relationships, or sexual misconduct. A detailed listing of University Resources for campus safety can be found at  https://registrar.utah.edu/handbook/campussafety.php

Your well-being is key to your personal safety. If you are in crisis, call 801-587-3000; help is close. The university has additional excellent resources to promote emotional and physical wellness, including the  Counseling Center , the  Wellness Center , and the  Women’s Resource Center . Counselors and advocates in these centers can help guide you to other resources to address a range of issues, including substance abuse and addiction. Here is a list of support services available on campus:

• American Indian Resource Center: 801-581-7019
• Black Cultural Center: 801-213-1441
• Center for Ethnic Student Affairs (CESA): 801-581-8151
• Center for Student Wellness (victim-survivor advocates, bystander intervention training): 801-581-7776
• Dream Center: 801-213-3697
• Employee Assistance Program(staff): 801-587-9319 or 800-926-9619
• Independent Review Committee: complaints about public safety personnel may be reported to the Independent Review Committee at  utah.edu
• LGBT Resource Center: 801-587-7973
• Office for Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action, and Title IX: 801-581-8365
• Office of the Dean of Students: 801-581-7066
• Resiliency Center: 801-213-3403
• University Counseling Center (students only): 801-581-6826
• University Crisis Center: 801-587-3000
• University Neuropsychiatric Institute crisis line (available 24/7): 801-587-3000
• Women’s Resource Center: 801-581-8030

COVID-19 Resources

If you are experiencing general fear and anxiety regarding COVID-19, or any other distress, the University of Utah provides many free resources for students, including crisis and counseling services (listed above). Additional information on COVID-19, including the latest updates on campus testing programs, current health guidelines, self-reporting forms and hotlines for any other COVID-19 related questions can be found here:  https://dps.utah.edu/coronavirus/ .

Tuition and Health Insurance

The Department of Oncological Sciences is committed to providing financial compensation to students throughout their tenure in the department. In addition to tuition benefits (for a required minimum number of credit hours and at least a 3.0 GPA), the faculty advisor pays a stipend to each student according to the recommended levels set by the interdepartmental programs.

Students are expected to devote their full effort toward graduate studies while enrolled in the program. It is not permissible for a student to work another job or be enrolled in another educational program. A variety of student loans are available to ameliorate cases of severe financial hardship.

From the  Graduate School website  concerning Summer Semester tuition coverage for students on Tuition Benefit: "Tuition benefit support is available for all graduate students during summer semester, no matter their source of pay. Summer TBP covers only 3 credit hours and students must register for 3 credits to be eligible. Summer semester does not count against the total number of semesters that a student is eligible for."

Health Insurance

To ensure appropriate medical insurance coverage for graduate students and their families, the Department of Oncological Sciences will cover medical insurance in one of three ways:

• Single students are covered by payment of health insurance premiums by the department.
• Married students whose spouses are covered through their employment may be covered as above, or the student can be covered through the spouse's insurance.
• Married students (with and without children) whose spouses (and families) cannot be covered by outside employers, can have their family's health insurance covered through the department*.

*Note that this additional family policy is only a trial at this point, and we cannot guarantee it will be continued indefinitely. Contact the department office for enrollment information.

Travel Support

Graduate school travel overview.

Graduate students whose research or creative project has been accepted for presentation at a professional meeting can apply for travel support from the Graduate School. This assistance is contingent upon the applicant presenting at the meeting. Applications must be received in the graduate school prior to travel dates. Requests are considered up to a maximum of $500 and must be supported with a dollar-for-dollar match from university funds. Matching support must be from university funding sources, such as development, operation, service, and research. One award only will be made during each fiscal year (July 1–June 30) to any graduate student. Student travel assistance funding can reimburse airfare/car mileage, ground transportation fares, lodging, abstract fees, and conference registration fees. The assistance will not reimburse meals, per diem, society memberships, or poster preparation fees. For a complete process overview and the link for application, please  visit the Graduate School site .

Department of Oncological Sciences Travel Overview

Applications for department travel assistance are invited from current department students in good standing whose research or creative project has been accepted for presentation at a professional meeting. This assistance is contingent upon the applicant presenting at the meeting. Applications must be received in the department office and approved by the graduate committee prior to travel dates. Requests are considered up to a maximum of $500. The department will determine total funds available for each month; funding is granted on a first come, first serve basis until funds for the month are exhausted.

John H. Weis Memorial Graduate Student Award

"The Award will be given on a competitive basis, with selection by a committee of faculty members in the Molecular Biology Program. This Award will recognize outstanding graduate achievement by a student who exemplifies John’s creative and original approach to science and life at the University of Utah. It will provide either stipend support for research by an outstanding Ph.D. or M.D. student, or one or more travel awards to support student participation in a scientific meeting." Notifications of the application dates and guidelines are emailed annually.

Vacation Policy

Students may take up to two weeks of vacation per calendar year. All vacations must be discussed in advance with the graduate advisor. Vacation time over two weeks must be approved by the graduate advisor in advance.

Parental Leave Policy

The Department of Oncological Sciences (“Department”)  policy  is intended to supplement existing University regulations related to parental leaves of absence. In the event of any conflict between this policy and any University Policy or other regulation, the University Policy or other regulation shall govern.

I'm a high school senior who commutes an hour by train to school every day. It's helped prepare me for the real world.

• Four years ago, I started commuting to my high school — which is an hour away — by train. 
• Sometimes the commute got difficult, especially when trains were delayed or canceled. 
• But I learned how to be independent; I'm taking this real-life experience with me to college.

I hadn't thought about how cushy life was in grade school when my father drove me 10 minutes to school every morning.

But that ended when I started high school at The Hudson School, which is 25 miles away from my home in Madison, New Jersey.

Unlike the schools around me, The Hudson School offers an urban campus and an extremely small class size — only 26 people in my grade. When I learned it also offers courses not found in a traditional high school curriculum, such as Ancient Greek and military history, I knew it was right for me.

But with it being so far from my home, I have to travel every day to and from school via New Jersey Transit . It takes me a little under an hour to get to school and up to 75 minutes to get home.

Now that I'm a high school senior , I look back fondly on my four-year commute. I learned a lot on those trains — but not all of it was great.

When I first started commuting to school, it was nerve-racking

I thought I knew what I was getting myself into on that first day of freshman year — but after waking up at 6 a.m. and planning to make a 6:45 train, I realized that I would have to make some changes. I started to adjust my routine: I packed my backpack the night before so it was ready to go in the morning, and I ate my breakfast on the train.

Right off the bat, my parents were concerned about me getting on and getting off the train in the dark — not to mention the discomfort of being surrounded by strangers every time I rode the train because this was the fall of 2020, and COVID was still very much a concern.

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Meanwhile, I realized I was on my own for the first time. I had to make sure to have my tickets ready and deal with difficult conductors. In the beginning, I was nervous.

But I quickly got into the swing of things that first year and learned to enjoy my commute . Four years later, those commute jitters are long gone.

I learned real-life experiences from a young age

It didn't take long before I developed a routine and became familiar with the ins and outs of navigating trains , and I found that I could even sit with some friends from school who also commuted.

At first, I felt I was wasting valuable time just sitting on the train, so I soon started using my time productively by completing my homework . Because of this, I have learned to work in almost any environment.

I also learned a whole new set of skills. I have to ensure I have my tickets ready every morning and that I am on the right track for my train — little things that I hadn't really had to worry about before.

Additionally, I had to think on my feet and learned how to handle the unexpected. I know which stations offer transfers, so if I missed my connection, I knew where I can catch a different train. I also have learned to read a timetable, which came in handy when I was in Europe last summer .

But commuting every day isn't always easy

Commuting did take a toll on my social life . Some of my classmates didn't live so far from the school, so they didn't have to worry about a long commute. They were able to stay in Hoboken and hang out. Whenever I joined them, I had to keep the train schedules in my mind. The longer I hung out, the later I would get home, cutting into my homework and study time.

Commuting by train also means inherent mechanical issues. There have been days when it has taken me hours to get to school. It can get exhausting and draining; there are some days when I wish I could just get home as quickly as my peers who live in Hoboken and not have to deal with mass transit .

Plus, there have been times when I needed to get to school on time — for a big project or test — and then my train would suddenly get canceled or experience a delay. On those days, I struggled the most and had to get creative. Sometimes, I had to rent a bike to finish the commute. Other times, I had to get to another station to catch a faster train.

I imagined how much easier it would be if I were a regular high school student who took the bus to school.

Still, I'm glad I got to commute 25 miles every day before heading off to college

Looking back at the past four years, I realize commuting has helped prepare me for the real world — outside high school.

Now that I am about to head off to college, I feel that these experiences have helped me learn lessons about time management and problem-solving that I might otherwise not have learned.

It may have been a struggle at times, but I know that it was all worth it for the education I got in the end.

Watch: The true cost of turning America's school buses electric

• Main content

When is it OK to take your kids out of school for vacation?

"We can’t keep taking trips during the school year because you’re getting older, and it’s getting harder to miss school," I told my daughter. But here’s the thing: I’ve been telling my 11-year-old daughter this for at least the past three years.

Every year, like so many other families, we struggle to decide whether we should take our children out of school for a family vacation. Whatever the reason might be – smaller crowds, lower prices, a great opportunity – families have lots to weigh before pulling kids out of school for a vacation during the school year.

Bring the kids: 10 best vacations for toddlers that parents will love too

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

What educators think about taking kids out of school for vacation

Mom of three and longtime educator Holly Hatcher-Frazier sees both sides of the coin. When she was in a school leadership position, she discouraged parents from taking family vacations during the school year.

“It is disruptive to learning and the curriculum is designed to account for regularly scheduled school vacations set by the administration," Hatcher-Frazier said. "Taking additional vacations throughout the school year can hinder academic progress for a student because there may be gaps in instruction due to absences.”

Easy planning: 15 family travel adventures where someone else does all the planning in 2024

However, the Pittsburgh mom who gained fame when she starred with her daughter Nia on the reality show "Dance Moms" said the emotional side creeps in when you're looking at it from the other side of family travel.

"I can find valid reasons to justify that decision and there is no denying family vacations can be incredibly educational, worthwhile experiences. However, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of pulling kids out of school for family vacations, I would still err on the side of resisting the urge. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances that may be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities which need to be considered."

That’s exactly what happened to my family. We were given a chance to travel on an Adventures by Disney trip to South Africa. The 10-day trip was packed with amazing experiences , including safaris, first-hand accounts of apartheid and Nelson Mandela, and African cultural experiences. It was an opportunity we couldn't pass up, even though it meant taking the kids out of school to do it.

Tips for taking your kids out of school for a trip

The problem was the trip was scheduled for right after the school year started. In situations like this, Hatcher-Frazier said if you decide to take the trip, you should talk to school officials as soon as possible.

"Telling the school the day before that your child will be missing school for a week for a family vacation does not usually sit well for many," she said.

Hatcher-Frazier also noted that it's not a fair expectation to assume teachers will prepare work ahead of time for your child for unexcused absences.

"Curating lesson plans for an individual child is creating more work for a teacher in addition to the teachers' regular responsibilities, lesson plans and workload," she explained. "If parents treat the school officials with reasonable expectations, courtesy, and respect, then I think most schools will try their best to work together with parents to ensure the success of the child."

Family travel adventures: 11 best tour operators for family tours in 2024

Once I saw the itinerary for our trip to South Africa, I knew there would be no time for schoolwork. It was a jam-packed family trip, but it was filled with activities that included some extraordinary form of learning every single day. And from the first day of the trip I knew we made the right decision to experience this family vacation, even though it meant missing school.

Every day was filled with educational experiences, from something as simple as learning that traffic lights in South Africa are called robots to finding out the meaning behind all the colors of the South African flag. The animal interactions on the trip were unreal, and with them came lessons on the lions, giraffes, monkeys, and everything else we saw. 

By the end of our first safari ride, my three kids were even able to tell which animal left the droppings we saw. They were also taught how to make a toothbrush out of tree branches and what tree bark can be ground down to make toothpaste. There was tons of information thrown at my children, and I do wonder what they will retain. My daughter kept a daily journal, which I know we’ll all continue to look back on to help remind us what we learned and how we learned it.

The benefits of trusting your gut

Once we returned home, there was some makeup work that needed to be done, but everyone, including my kids' teachers and school administrators, agreed this was an incredible experience. 

Hatcher-Frazier said, in the end, trust your gut.

"You know your child best and whether or not this is a vacation that can't wait until an upcoming school break. Parents need to consider the consequences of their child missing school. Does your child work independently? Most likely, your child will have to do work on their own without the help of an instructor or in-class discussion if they miss class. Does your child take initiative?"

Kid-friendly: 19 best family resorts and hotels in the U.S. for 2024

Truth be told, in the weeks after the trip, my daughter struggled a bit with all the makeup work. There were some nights when I questioned if we made the right decision because I hated seeing her so stressed. In the future, I’m not sure we’ll be so quick to take our children out of school for a trip we can easily reschedule. However, if another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity arises, we’ll give it careful consideration.

Once all the work was made up, my daughter told me she would 100% do the trip again. As a family, I think we made the right choice. We have amazing memories we talk about daily. The family vacation allowed us to make friends with people from all over the world whom we otherwise would have never met, and it taught my children to differentiate between rhino poop and zebra poop – a lesson I don’t think they’ll ever learn in the classroom. 

The story When is it OK to take your kids out of school for vacation? first appeared on FamilyVacationist.com .

More from FamilyVacationist:

• 28 best places to go with kids in 2024 . 
• Why every family should try an all-inclusive resort at least once.
• 9 skip-gen destinations perfect for grandkids and grandparents .

FamilyVacationist.com and TourScoop.com are owned and operated by Vacationist Media LLC. FamilyVacationist covers family vacation ideas ; family vacation spots ; all-inclusive family resorts ; and theme park vacations for families. TourScoop covers guided group tours and tour operators , tour operator reviews , tour itinerary reviews and travel gear recommendations . The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: When is it OK to take your kids out of school for vacation?