Who can use the School Transport Scheme?

To qualify for school transport, a child must be aged between 4 and 12 years and living 3.2 km or more from the nearest suitable national school.

Children with special needs are also eligible for free transport to and from special schools and to special classes.

If there are spare seats available, children who are not eligible can be carried on school transport.

Bus Eireann provides a list of FAQs about the School Transport Scheme.

Schools

The Department of Education decides what the nearest suitable school is. If a child is attending a school that has more than one teacher and there is a one-teacher school nearer the home, that fact will not usually disqualify the child from using the school transport scheme.

Children attending multi-denominational schools or Gaelscoileanna (Irish-speaking schools) are eligible if they meet the distance requirements to their school. They are not disqualified because there is another national school nearer to them. There are also special arrangements for Protestant children attending Protestant schools and children living in remote areas.

Pick-up points

The scheme is not a door-to-door service. Parents/guardians are responsible for bringing their children to the nearest pick-up point to avail of the service. Generally, routes are planned so pupils don't have to travel more than 2.4 km to their nearest pick-up point.

If there is no school transport service available, you may be able to get a grant towards the costs of private transport for a child who cannot get to school without transport due to an illness or disability.

Establishing and retaining a school transport service

There must be enough children to use the service. This means that there must be a daily average (over a school term) of at least 10 eligible children in a distinct area attending their nearest suitable school.

Closed or merged schools

The following rules applied in the school year 2011-2012.

• Children in a closed school area who are living within 3.2 km from a ‘school of amalgamation’ are no longer eligible for transport to that school, but they may apply for concessionary transport if there are seats available
• Current pupils who are eligible for transport under the Central/Closed School Rule (CSR)*, and who live 3.2 km or more from their school of amalgamation will remain eligible for the rest of their primary schooling

*In the school year 2010-2011 when 2 or more primary schools merged, the children for whom the closed school would have been the nearest could only have transport to the school that was the result of the merger. Under the CSR some children living less than 3.2 km from such a ‘school of amalgamation’ were eligible for school transport.

From the 2012-2013 school year, eligibility based on the CSR ceased for all new pupils entering primary schools. This may mean that where there is now a school that is nearer than the school of amalgamation, siblings in some families may have school transport eligibility to different schools from the 2012-2013 school year onward.

The Department of Education publishes detailed information on the conditions governing the primary school transport scheme (pdf).

Remote area grants

Remote area grants are payable by the Department as a contribution towards private transport arrangements for eligible pupils for whom no transport service is available. These grants may also be paid for eligible pupils who live 3.2 km or more from the nearest pick-up point for school transport.