Last modified: December 14, 2020

Transportation as a Related Special Education Service

Transportation as a related service for a student with an IEP includes:

1. Travel to and from school and between schools;
2. Travel in and around school buildings; and
3. Specialized equipment (such as special or adapted buses, lifts, and ramps), if required to provide special transportation for a student with a disability.

Transportation as a related service is based upon the student’s unique needs, not on the boundaries of the district. In deciding whether a student with disabilities may require a program of specialized transportation as part of the related services that accompany special education, school districts should ask themselves whether a child’s disabilities make it problematic to get to school in the same manner as students without IEPs. Letter to Hamilton, 25 IDELR 520 (OSEP 1996).

• If the district can answer “yes” to this inquiry, it must consider what specific transportation arrangements are necessary to enable the student to benefit from an educational program.
• Alternatively, if a student with a disability can use the same transportation (as for students w/o IEPs) without complications, then transportation is not likely to comprise the package of related services for that student. A school district could then make the same transportation provisions available as those that are offered to the general school population.

For more information, please reach out to your student’s special education teacher.