© BELGA
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A solution has been found for special education students who spend hours on the bus to school every day. This school year an additional 11 million euros will be invested, and the problem will also be tackled in the long term. This is reported by Flemish mobility minister Lydia Peeters (Open VLD).
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39,500 of the 50,000 pupils in special education in Flanders currently use collective pupil transport. But for years there have been complaints about far too long bus rides: recently it turned out that more than 5,500 students spend more than 3 hours on a bus every day.
Minister Peeters already allocated 1.8 million euros extra in September and now announces that an additional 11 million euros will be invested for this school year for the use of buses, minibuses, taxis and bus escorts to be able to help those 5,500 students. “The most vulnerable students in our society deserve more free time and less bus time,” says Peeters. She instructed De Lijn to work out a solution with the schools tailored to each student.
In the long term, the aim is to reach a memorandum with the established working groups by the end of January with a structural solution that must be in place in the 2022-2023 school year.
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