Parents of Kirklees’ most severely disabled children face paying £200+ for school transport
Aug 27 2010 by Kevin Core, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
PARENTS of the most severely disabled children in Kirklees could have to pay £215 a year for travel to school.
A letter sent to mums and dads of youngsters with special needs says discussions were taking place about “making a contribution” to the cost of getting over 16s to school.
The letter, sent out on Monday, says 16+ learners in colleges have paid towards travel for years – and this could now be extended to schools.
Yet it seems the issue has not even been raised with councillors yet and it is unclear who has made the decision to consider charging the parents and send the letters out.
But although the letter does not state this, the only schools in question are Castle Hill School, Newsome, Fairfield School at Batley and Robert Ogden in South Yorkshire.
Castle Hill is described by Ofsted as for children with “severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties”. Similarly Fairfield is described as catering for severe and multiple difficulties and Robert Ogden School is specifically for autistic pupils.
The letter goes on to outline the cheapest pass for a college student costing £215 a year. Contributions based on this for parents of the disabled would be £1.13 a day.
It ends: “Once discussions are finalised I will contact you again to advise of the outcome” and is signed by a transport officer.
Parents have reacted with shock to the letter.
The father of one Castle Hill pupil who asked not to be named said: “We can’t believe Kirklees is seriously considering charging the most vulnerable pupils in the education system for their travel to school.
“We have heard politicians claiming the cuts will not affect frontline services, the disabled and the most vulnerable in society, but plans such as this are doing exactly the opposite.
“Many of the families of severely disabled children cannot work full-time as they need to be at home to put their children on to school transport and then take them off again in the afternoon.
