Red tape stops pupils from using school bus [Independent.ie]
- Published: 17 December 2010
PILES of paperwork are preventing three children with special needs from getting on a school bus outside their door every morning.
Layers of red tape are forcing the Health Service Executive (HSE) to pay for a taxi to bring a 12-year-old, who is in care, to and from school every day.
The parents of the other two pupils have to bring their children back to their old address every morning so they can get a bus to school.
The problem has been blamed on the bureaucracy involved in applying for school transport for children with special needs.
Schools have to go through the same paperwork all over again when an existing pupil changes address.
Because two of the pupils in question qualified for school transport at their old address, they may still avail of it, but their parents have to bring them back each day for pick-up and collection.
The three students, pupils at Scoil Chiarain special school in north Dublin, ran into obstacles when they changed address this year.
The Glasnevin school caters for 133 pupils, aged five to 18, who live in the north Dublin area.
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