Hope of school transport reprieve

FAMILIES who fear their children will not be eligible for transport to the same primary school as their older siblings from next year could be offered a reprieve as the effects of the rule change are being reviewed.

Bus Éireann is analysing the numbers of schools and families likely to be affected by the planned restriction on school bus eligibility, Minister of State for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock said.

The changes to the closed school rule (CSR) are due to take effect in September 2012 for children starting at dozens of schools which were formed by the amalgamation of hundreds of rural primary schools which closed in the 1960s and 1970s.