School transport assistance eligibility and applications

On this page

Types of assistance available
Eligibility for transport assistance
Transferring eligibility to another school
Ineligible students
Applying for a conveyance allowance

Types of assistance available

Eligibility criteria for school transport assistance

Understand what transport assistance might be available and who is eligible for it.

Caregivers are primarily responsible for getting their children to school, but for some students, where distance is a barrier to getting to school or kura, transport assistance may be available.

Most school buses are managed by the Ministry of Education, but some schools are funded to organise their own transport services.

Some local councils also run school buses in urban areas.

For Ministry-funded services, transport assistance can be either:

A place on a school bus
an allowance to contribute towards the cost of travel to school or the nearest bus pick-up or drop-off, or
assistance for students with complex safety or mobility needs.

Three eligibility criteria make sure school transport assistance is provided to the students who need it most.

Students must meet all three eligibility criteria to get school transport assistance.

The school is the closest state or state-integrated school the student can enrol at.
The student lives more than a certain distance from the school.
- For Year 1 to 8 students this is at least 3.2 kilometres from the school.
- For Year 9 to 13 students this is at least 4.8 kilometres from the school.
There are no public transport options available.

School bus routes fall within the Transport Eligibility Zone of the schools they service.

The boundaries of these zones are set at the halfway point between neighbouring schools of the same type, for example, between two secondary schools.

School enrolment zones, on the other hand, are geographically defined areas around schools to prevent them from becoming overcrowded.

The design of the bus route takes into consideration:

The location of eligible students, and
where the safest stops are on the route.

If you’d like to know more about school transport assistance, visit the Ministry of Education website or speak to your school’s Bus Controller.

While primary responsibility for transporting children to and from school rests with their caregivers, we can help in certain circumstances.

For ākonga | students eligible for transport assistance, we provide:

spaces on school buses
conveyance allowances to contribute to the cost of getting to school or kura.

Our Specialised School Transport Assistance (SESTA) page has information about school transport assistance for students with safety and/or mobility needs.

Specialised School Transport Assistance (SESTA)

School buses

We fund school bus services for getting students to school or kura. You must check that a student meets the transport assistance eligibility criteria before they use this service.

School bus conveyance allowance

We provide a school bus conveyance allowance when there is no school bus available, or an eligible student lives more than 2.4km from the nearest bus route. It is paid to parents or whānau | families of eligible students to contribute to the cost of getting to school or kura, or the nearest school bus route.

We pay the conveyance allowance to parents once per term. How much we pay depends on how many children they are taking to school and how far they have to travel. The allowance is paid at a daily rate so the payment will vary depending on how many school days are in the term.

Daily Bus Conveyance Allowance payment rates

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Eligibility for transport assistance

A student must meet 3 criteria to be eligible for transport assistance.

The student must be enrolled at the nearest state or state-integrated school they can enrol at

For a student attending a state-integrated school, it must be the closest school of its designated character as defined under Section 204 of the Education and Training Act 2020. For example, the closest Catholic school. Single-sex schools and intermediate schools do not meet this criterion as they do not have a designated character as defined under the Act.

Section 204: Education and Training Act 2020 – New Zealand Legislation

This criterion does not apply to ākonga | students attending a Māori-medium kura because of the importance of iwi and hapu affiliation to a Māori-medium education.

The student must live more than a certain distance from the school or kura

The student must not have access to public transport

This is public transport that:

travels to within 2.4km of the roadside gate of the student's home
travels to within 2.4km of their school or kura
does not need the student to be picked up before 7am and gets them to school or kura on time
collects the student within an hour of school or kura finishing
does not need the student to change buses more than once on a journey.

We may stop running school buses in an area if a public transport option becomes available. We will give affected schools or kura at least a full term's notice of the change.

Additional eligibility criteria for the school bus conveyance allowance

A student is eligible for a school bus conveyance allowance if they meet all 3 transport assistance criteria and:

there is no school bus available, or
they live more than 2.4 km from the nearest school bus route.

Transferring eligibility to another school

A student enrolled at a school that is not their nearest one may be able to transfer their eligibility for transport assistance and use the school bus. These students need to make their own way to a bus stop in their chosen school’s transport eligibility zone and will not qualify for a conveyance allowance.

Schools are responsible for confirming that a student meets the rules for an eligibility transfer.

Read this guide for information about when a student can transfer their eligibility for transport assistance to a different school.

Transfer of eligibility

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Ineligible students

Students who aren’t eligible for school transport assistance may be able to access a bus service funded by us in some circumstances. This is at the discretion of the transport provider and they must meet certain criteria.

Transport providers can only take ineligible students if it does not disadvantage an eligible student and they have a seat on the bus for everyone. It also must not require the contracted route to change.

The parent or caregiver of the ineligible student must:

get written consent from all schools nearer to the student's home than their chosen school allowing the transport provider to carry the student
acknowledge in writing that they have received the conditions of transportation.

The transport provider may charge ineligible students a fare. The provider determines the amount and method of payment.

Applying for a conveyance allowance

Schools and kura can apply for the school bus conveyance allowance on behalf of students using Pokapū Waka Kura | the School Transport Hub.

Applications can also be started by parents. You will receive a notification to view and complete the application before it can be submitted to us.

Pokapū Waka Kura | the School Transport Hub – Applications and Online Systems

If you are a parent or caregiver and want to apply for a Conveyance Allowance for your child, please visit the Parents and Caregivers webpage for more information.

Conveyance Allowance - Parents and Caregivers

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Eligibility criteria for school transport assistance

The student must be enrolled at the nearest state or state-integrated school they can enrol at

The student must live more than a certain distance from the school or kura

The student must not have access to public transport