These were the words of Year 10 student Bella Leeming last Thursday, one of at least four Blue Mountains school children with a disability left stranded by the NSW Government’s mishandling of changes to its Assisted School Transport Program.

Bella’s mother Angie and another parent, Louise Thomson, told the Gazette they were given no notification by the Department of Education prior to the new school year starting that Katoomba-Leura Cabs would not be transporting their children anymore.

Angie and Louise and at least two other parents they know of were only informed of the changes by phone after hours on January 30, discovering a company called Capebase Pty Ltd had won the new contract but could not guarantee it could accommodate their children’s individual needs.

They said Katoomba-Leura Cabs had provided a highly personalised service for four years, which the new company could not not match.

“Last Tuesday we received calls from the program’s staff and were told you are not getting back your [previous] service and your child will get on this bus tomorrow,” said Angie.

“The safety of the students is at risk — our children need to have that extra assistance and support which Katoomba-Leura Cabs was able to provide and we cannot understand if the cost of providing both services is about the same, why change something that was working?

“The Department of Education and Training had from July up until the end of the summer school holidays to contact parents and I understand the company that was awarded the new contract were not even told until January 27.

“It’s a big mess and every day it goes on it causes us more stress.”

Louise said she and her son Ben, a Year 5 student at St Canice’s Primary School, were “treated like numbers” when spoken to by the program’s staff.

“My son is already feeling very anxious about what’s going on and he won’t be able to know how to get into his school if dropped off without further assistance.