L’AQUILA – “The misunderstanding” of the 15 minute tolerance on school transport services. City councilor Stefano Palumbo: “Dozens of families blocked in renewing their registration, common sense is needed.”
“Dozens of families from L’Aquila suddenly found themselves stranded in the renewal of enrollment in school services (school bus, canteen, pre-interschool) because they are classified by the Municipality of L’Aquila as ‘defaulters‘”. The city councilor writes it Stefano Palumbo (PD), explaining: “In May 2024, in fact, the Municipality also charged those who had used the school bus service the payment of the entire service pre-school for the entire 2023/2024 school year. To be honest, the regulations approved with City Council Resolution no. 273/2021 provided that “users who use the school transport service and in fact also use the pre-interschool service are obliged to pay both fees”, with the exception of cases in which the pre-interschool service is provided for once less than 15 minutes. And it is precisely from these “15 minutes” of tolerance that it is born the misunderstanding since if the school bus on which their child is traveling arrives 16 minutes before the start of lessons, families must pay the full amount of the pre-school fee, while other children traveling on school buses that arrive 14 minutes before the start of lessons do not they are required to pay. But the organization of the school bus service is the responsibility of the Municipality which, based on the lines, routes and consequent arrival times at the complexes, accordingly establishes who must also pay for pre-school costs and who does not. According to several parents, adding to the confusion is the failure to communicate to families of the due payment during the school year and the absence of an indication of the arrival time of the school bus at the school premises when registering for the school bus service. These families therefore did not know whether or not they were required to pay for the pre-school service, and since it was never reported to them during the school year, they did not pay, only to have all the costs of the service charged in May 2024. At this point it is desirable for the Municipality to apply common sense, first of all by unblocking the enrollments – currently blocked – of girls and boys in school services for the 2024/2025 school year. In parallel, opening a reflection on possible solutions both in relation to the sums requested for the school year just concluded, but also to avoid the same critical issues for the upcoming 2024/2025 school year and eliminate the current disparities between users of the service determined exclusively by the organization of the school bus service by the Municipality and the consequent arrival time of the school bus”.
