What if my child needs a smartphone for the school bus?

One of the most common reasons parents give for needing to give their child a smartphone is simple and practical:

“They need it for the bus.”

For schools trying to go smartphone‑free, and for families trying to delay smartphones, bus ticketing can become a very real blocker. If the cheapest tickets, discounts, or even access to school routes are only available via a smartphone app, the pressure is immediate and intense. But if you’ve decided this isn’t an acceptable barrier – you have the power to change it. 

In Dorset, SFC Regional Leader Naomi Noah did just that. What follows is her story, and a practical guide for parents, carers and school leaders who want children to travel to school smartphone free. 

Why buses matter so much

In 2025, Naomi noticed a clear pattern in conversations with parents:

• Bus travel was the reason given for giving children smartphones
• Headteachers felt stuck  –  “there’s nothing we can do because of the buses”
• Many safeguarding incidents linked to smartphones were happening on buses, not just in school

But there was a deeper principle at stake.

If a school has decided, in good faith, that being smartphone-free is the right safeguarding choice for its pupils – and if parents have decided to delay giving their child a smartphone – then it cannot be right for a bus ticketing system to override those decisions.

Practical infrastructure should support safeguarding choices, not undermine them. Children should not be nudged towards smartphones simply because a transport provider’s cheapest or most convenient option assumes app access.

In Dorset, schools were beginning to explore brick-phone-only policies (rather than pouches or lockers). That made the bus issue unavoidable. If children genuinely couldn’t travel affordably without a smartphone, the policy wouldn’t hold.

So Naomi decided to tackle the problem directly.

Step one: understand the bus landscape

Before approaching the bus company, Naomi researched the routes used by local schools.  

Once she engaged with the bus company, they helped her to understand more about the way school buses are typically organised across England:

The three types of school bus routes

Most areas will fall into one or more of these categories:

1. Closed‑door routes

• Only pupils from a specific school can use them
• Often organised by the council or school
• Common where councils provide free transport for pupils living over a certain distance away

2. Open‑door school routes

• Timed and routed specifically for a school
• But technically open to the public
• Very common in places like Bournemouth and other cities

3. Commercial routes

• Normal public buses used by pupils alongside the general public
• Tickets may be council‑issued passes or privately purchased

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👉 Which types of buses your pupils use will shape the solution.

Step two: understand the technology (and its limits)

Bus ticketing is more complicated than it looks. Naomi discovered that her local provider (Go South Coast) relied on:

• One company for the ticketing app
• Another for on‑bus ticket machines
• A third for payment processing

These systems all have to work together and so the solution isn’t always straight forward.

This mattered because, from the outside, it can look like a bus company is being slow to act. In reality, they may be constrained by legacy technology, contracts, or cost. 

A note on QR Codes & Shuttle ID

Many bus companies today use QR codes for ticketing. If this is the case and the ticket is as simple as one QR code per child, the solution can be simple. If the QR code can be printed then a parent can access the QR code from an app and print it for the child so that this paper can act as a ticket. (Some parents even get it engraved on a key ring for their child which can be done on sites such as Etsy).

Some companies have realised that this can be a differentiator for them. One such company is called Shuttle ID. They offer both paper tickets and brick‑phone compatible options (which they call “Brickets”.)

This has worked as a great solution for some closed-door routes. However, Naomi discovered that Shuttle ID wasn’t compatible with her local bus company’s onboard machines without a full (and prohibitively expensive) fleet upgrade.

The lesson: don’t assume there’s a single national fix – but do explore what’s possible locally.

Step three: go to the top (and stay there)

Naomi didn’t start with customer services. She went straight to the CEO. As a parent and SFC volunteer, her conversation took six months. If School Leaders go directly to bus companies they may be able to drive things faster.

[.style-link]Find suggested email templates both for Parents and School Leaders here.[.style-link]

Throughout, Naomi:

• Stayed focused on children and fairness
• Acknowledged the company’s operational constraints
• Kept the conversation collaborative, not confrontational

When progress slowed, she also:

• Engaged a supportive local MP
• Used the visibility of SFC events to underline public concern

Go South Coast engaged really positively in the process and were looking to find a solution - in fact they had already been alerted to the issue by the first school in Dorset to move to a brick-phone-only policy. Their desire to solve the problem and their willingness to innovate ultimately led initially to a clever interim solution and then an even better medium-term solution. The longer-term solution will likely be led by innovation across the industry in coming years. 

A clever, interim solution

For one Dorset secondary school that went brick‑phone‑only for Year 7 in September 2025, Go South Coast had already implemented an interim fix:

• Pupils tap on/off using a debit card
• A weekly cap ensures costs never exceed the app‑based equivalent of a termly ticket
• This applies across school routes and commercial routes

Crucially, the bus company also offered to roll out this temporary solution, to other schools in the area if needed.

The longer term solution: equal pricing without a smartphone

After exploring many technical options, Go South Coast arrived at a surprisingly simple (and powerful) solution.

The core principle: Children should not pay more just because they don’t have a smartphone.

What Go South Coast agreed

From September 2026, across the entire Go South Coast network (including Dorset, Wiltshire, parts of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight):

• App‑only discounts for children will end
• Non‑app options will be priced the same as app tickets
• A physical smart card system will be re-introduced as a medium‑term solution

Whilst smartcard technology is considered by many to be legacy tech, it does offer a readily available solution to this challenge. This solution removed the financial penalty for smartphone‑free children  –  and removed a major barrier for schools. And Go South Coast deserves real credit for engaging with the issue and taking the time to solve this challenge for the children that they serve.

Naomi’s top tips for parents and schools

1. Go to the top

Skip customer services. Find the parent company and write to the CEO.

2. Be persistent (and patient)

These changes can take time – but steady pressure matters.

3. Learn the system

Understanding routes and technology builds credibility and unlocks solutions.

4. Use MPs strategically

Supportive MPs can help move conversations along.

5. Frame it around fairness

This isn’t anti‑bus or anti‑tech – it’s about not disadvantaging children.

Why this matters

Bus companies don’t set out to undermine smartphone‑free policies. But when pricing and access are app‑only, they unintentionally lock smartphones into children’s lives.

Dorset shows that change is possible and that practical blockers can be removed when schools, parents, and providers work together.

If your school or region is facing a bus‑ticketing barrier, you are not alone and you are not powerless.

This is exactly the kind of systems‑level change that makes smartphone‑free childhoods possible.

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‍Next Steps

If you would like to understand whether your bus companies’ current systems could be a blocker, here are some template emails to send to them to get you started.‍