The Ombudsman has recommended that the Department of Education pay £6,800 compensation to a child with spina bifida for failing to provide him with school transport.
The sum is calculated on the basis of the cost of a taxi service to the school each school day from September 1994 to November 1996, during which the boy was driven to school by his mother.
The boy, who uses a wheelchair and has a learning disability, started attending a special school nine miles from his home, recommended by the Department in 1994.
The transport arrangements were that he would be picked up by a school bus 2.3 miles from his home. Most other children attending the special school were provided with a transport service from their homes. The Department offered an annual grant of £240 towards the cost of private transport to and from the pick-up point, but the boy's mother rejected this as inadequate.
She had two other children attending a national school three miles from their home. The arrangements for the disabled boy involved waiting with him more than two miles from their home, lifting him and his wheelchair on to the bus and doing the same thing when he came home. After the boy's first week in school she discontinued the use of the bus and drove him there and back herself every day.
During the Ombudsman's detailed investigation of the case the Department reviewed the transport arrangements and in November 1996 provided a service for the boy from a point 200 yards from his home.
The Ombudsman noted that the boy was penalised because he was the only child with disabilities in his area, and that he was refused transport because the Department could not arrange it within the £9 a day spending limit. The basis for that figure was unclear. The grant scheme was inadequate, as it was not related to the cost of travel by road, and the Department delayed unduly in arriving at a solution.