Bus Éireann operates the School Transport Scheme on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills. Co. Laois VEC assists Bus Éireann in administering the service in Co. Laois by co-ordinating primary education and post-primary school transport provision and by processing applications from second level students for school transport. Bus Éireann is responsible for planning routes, employing bus drivers, collecting fares and ensuring compliance with safety regulations and insurance.
     
Eligibility: To be eligible for transport under this scheme, a pupil must:
(i)    Be enrolled for an approved course in a recognised post-primary school;
(ii)    Be not less than 12 years of age on the first day of January of the school-year in which the pupil enters second level education;
(iii)    As a rule, have completed a full course of primary education;
(iv)    Live 4.8 kilometres (3 miles), or more, from his/her appropriate post-primary education centre.

• School transport services are organised as a network of main routes serving each catchment area. Pupils living off a main route are expected to get, or be brought, to a convenient pick-up on the main route. As a rule, the routes will be planned so that no pupil will have more than 3.2 kilometres (2 miles) to travel to a pick-up point.

Concessionary Transport:

• Where an eligible pupil attends a school at a centre other than the post-primary centre which caters for the catchment area in which she/he lives, she/he may be allowed the concession of transport from the catchment boundary of the centre attended, provided there is a spare seat on a bus serving that centre. The pupils themselves, are responsible for getting to the catchment boundary or to the nearest school bus service within that catchment area. (Pupils availing of such facilities are referred to as “Catchment Boundary Pupils”).
• A pupil who is approved for catchment boundary transport is not guaranteed school transport for the duration of his/her education at that centre. As this is a concessionary measure, continued transport will depend on the availability of spare seats on the bus to that centre each school term. Priority will be given to eligible pupils enrolled in or proposing to enrol in a school located in the catchment area in which they live.  

If you are unsure about the catchment area in which you live or the various categories of school transport, please check with your chosen school or the Transport Liaison Officer at the offices of Co. Laois VEC.

How to Apply for School Transport:

School Transport forms are available at the post-primary schools from March onwards. The form must be completed fully and signed by the School Principal. The forms are then forwarded to the School Transport Section of the VEC where they are processed and forwarded to Bus Éireann. Bus Éireann will then issue invoices and tickets as appropriate.     

Cost:

Forms:

    Form E – Existing Student
    Form N – New Student
    Form T – Transfer Student

Contact Details:

School Transport Service,
Co. Laois VEC,
Administrative Offices,
Ridge Road,
Portlaoise,
Co. Laois
   
Tel: (057) 86 21352     
Fax: (057) 86 21877
     
Email: headoffice@laoisvec.ie