Turku parents drive children despite approved school taxi service

Parents in Turku have had to drive their children to school themselves even after taxi transport was approved, Yle reports. The city says it will clarify the application process and introduce a new system next school year.

Tiia Laine drove both of her children to school for a week. The trips covered about 400 kilometres and caused her to miss work placement hours, which she must now make up.

“I drove both children myself during the first week. No one explained why the transport had not been arranged,” Laine said.

Laine had submitted the school transport applications correctly in May. One child initially received a positive decision and the other a negative one. The positive decision was later cancelled.

Laine sent the city additional information about the route. She measured the widths of the roads, requested predator sightings in the area from the Natural Resources Institute Finland and filmed the journey of just under two kilometres from her front door to the bus stop.

There is no pedestrian or cycle path to the stop, and the road is narrow and partly unlit. One child’s full school journey is 13 kilometres and the other’s is 21 kilometres.

Laine eventually appealed to the administrative court. The court received her appeal on July 16. She said she appealed because the body handling school transport matters was going on holiday, and the deadline for appealing the transport decision would have passed during that time.

The city later sent her a positive decision by email on August 3, after which she withdrew her appeal. She was promised the taxi schedules on August 10, one day before school began. Neither the schedules nor the taxi arrived.

Yle has seen documents and messages related to the case. The children’s taxi transport began operating after the first week of school.

Threat of absence led to transport being arranged

Oivi Viljasalo also drove her children for more than a week when their school transport did not start. A neighbour was recruited to help with the driving.

Eventually, Viljasalo said she took the most extreme step available to her.

“I said that the boys would not come to school because I could not drive them myself,” she said by telephone.

The children stayed home on the Thursday in question, but according to the information available at the time, their transport was due to start the following Friday.

Viljasalo said she had submitted the transport applications on time and that both decisions were positive.

Problems recur every year

The Primus student register system is currently working and the backlog of applications is being cleared. Some pupils still do not have a decision on school transport.

Krista Lahtinen, the regional director for children’s and young people’s services, said applications received the previous week were being processed, although new applications were still arriving. The processing time is three weeks.

“Processing is slowed by guardians sending attachments, such as information about the danger of the route, separately from the application. The process for applying for transport will be clarified so that applications arrive on time with the necessary attachments,” Lahtinen said.

Lahtinen could not say how many pupils were still waiting for a decision. The number cannot be seen directly in the system and would have to be counted manually.

According to Lahtinen, there may be several reasons why a taxi has not arrived even when transport has been approved. Changes may have been made to the timetable or to the pupil’s information. In addition, taxi companies have seven days to arrange the transport after a decision has been made.

Lahtinen apologised for the difficulties caused by the school transport problems.

“This is not good customer service, but everything is being handled and corrected, and lessons will be learned,” she said.

Lahtinen said the challenges and backlogs connected with school transport have recurred every year. The city says it will clarify the system and introduce a new one next school year.