$2 million to support regional bus transport

The Catholic and Independent school sectors will each receive a $1 million grant to subsidise school bus travel for non-government school students in regional South Australia.

The investment comes following a government review of regional school bus services which investigated ways to improve access to transport for non-government students in the regions.

Under the Department for Education’s school transport policy, students who live more than 5 kilometres from their nearest appropriate government school are entitled to bus travel to that site.

However, if parents choose a different school, the student is only entitled to bus travel if there’s a spare seat available and the existing bus route past the chosen school or terminates nearby.

The new grant is designed to assist in delivering transport options to around 60 non-government schools located in the regions. Each sector has autonomy over how the money is spent.

“This $2 million will help deliver fairer school bus access for families in regional areas,” said Minister Gardner.

“A review of regional bus services was commissioned in recognition of the fact that students in regional areas don’t have the same access to public transport as their city counterparts.

“The report highlights the extreme complexity of public policy development for transport provision for students in regional parts of South Australia, where geographic distances required to travel to school are often far greater than in many other parts of the country.

“This funding of $2 million per year will go a long way to addressing these challenges by enabling non-government schools to put appropriate measures in place to assist where there are gaps in service.

“It is a substantial investment and we are confident that it will enable the independent and catholic sectors, with their understanding of their student’s needs, to deliver a better service to families.

“This new support does not replace existing measures whereby many non-government school students are currently supported in their transport needs under existing policy settings.”

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