This petition is regarding children who live out of area, are eligible for free school buses, and have recently been issued with school bus passes, which they show the driver when getting on the bus to prove their eligibility for travel.

Currently the school bus drivers are under contract from the Transport Department to refuse our children travel to school if they are unable to show their bus pass, even though the drivers know these children as they pick them up and drop them off daily. There is a 'No Bus Pass, No Travel' policy in place, and it allows for no errors. If the driver does not follow this policy, they will be found in breach of their contract, and can therefore have their contract revoked.

This means that currently children are being left at the side of the road. As parents, we all know that children sometimes mislay items, it's a fact, we all, even as parents misplace items. The bus drivers know these children, and know that they are eligible for travel, and that they own a bus pass, they pick them up and drop them off five days a week.

We do not think that it is acceptable to refuse our children access to the bus, and to leave them at the side of the road. Most children travel a fair distance to school, and therefore could not be expected to walk. Also, most parents work, and this means an empty home, and no way for the child to get to school. Leaving our children on the side of the road is unacceptable on so many levels, for example, its a safety issue, and it also means missed lessons in school. 

We would therefore like the Transport Department to consider giving the drivers the authority to assess the individual situation, and set of circumstances, so that the child could be issued with a warning before the refusal to travel. A risk assessment for leaving a child on the side of the road with no duty of care to contact the school or parents needs to be done. 

We must act now to change this policy, and keep our children safe.