Q: My son is in year 4 and my daughter is in year 2. How will the policy affect me? I live 2 miles from school.
A: You will need to buy a spare seat for your son, but your daughter will qualify for free transport until she turns 8.
Q: My daughter in year 7 gets the bus to our catchment school at the moment but her friend in the next street is being told that she will only get free travel to a different school. Why don't we have to pay for my daugher?
A: The policy is being phased in, so only applies to children moving up to secondary school (but to all children at primary school).
Q: The route the council has identified involves crossing a main road with no pedestrian crossing and we don't consider it safe.
A: You can appeal to Suffolk County Council to assess the safety of the route. If they decide the route is unsafe, transport will be provided.
Q: Transport is currently provided because the route was assesed as unsafe several years ago. Won't that still apply?
A: No. Routes need to be re-assessed in line with the new policy.
Q: The bus my son gets to school is actually a public service and the council have told me they can't sell me a spare seat. What do I do?
A: You will need to contact the bus company directly. The cost of the bus pass may be different from the Council's spare seat cost. For example, the cost of an annual ticket on the 84 Chambers bus from Nayland to TGS is currently £830 for the year.
Q: The council is promoting a brokerage service to help parents and schools work out transport solutions. Does that mean they will match families and check car insurance, do DBS checks etc?
A: We don't yet know.
Q: The council says this new policy takes account of parental choice. What does that mean?
A: Some parents have always chosen to send their children to a school that isn't their local school (e.g. a faith school, a private school, or just a different school they preferred). Promoting school choice is a government policy. But this policy is not aimed at those parents. It is aimed at parents seeking to send their children to their local state schools, which are traditionally linked with their local communities.