QUALIFYING distances for free school bus passes are "on the table" to be reviewed, the education minister has said.
The Department of Education is looking at ways to make transport financially sustainable.
Nearly one third of the school population qualifies for assistance at a cost of more than £100 million a year.
It has been suggested that means-testing can raise revenue and ease huge financial pressures on the system.
The review was raised in the assembly by Sinn Féin member for West Tyrone Maolíosa McHugh.
He urged minister Peter Weir to ensure that any changes met the needs of children in rural areas.
Daniel McCrossan of the SDLP also asked Mr Weir had he plans to change the distances required to satisfy school transport.
The legal walking distance/qualifying distance is used to decide if the costs should be met by the Education Authority or parents.
It is two miles for primary and three miles for post-primary pupils and measured by the shortest route along which a child, accompanied as necessary, can walk with reasonable safety.
"There are quite a number of pupils in my area who just miss out. They live in very rural and dangerous parts of the constituency. They could not possibly consider walking to school and do not have any access to any form of transportation," Mr McCrossan said.
Mr Weir said several options were being considered.
"The overall distance requirement in either direction has to be on the table to be looked at. I think that the distances being used were produced in the 1940s, so there is an argument about whether they are necessarily fit for purpose. Balanced against that must be the pressure on the wider public purse and, obviously, the impact that it has on transport," he said.
"In the post-primary sector, the family of someone who lives 2.99 miles away from a school has to pay the full amount, yet someone who lives three miles and 10 metres away will get free transport. There is a level of inequity there. Finding a solution is probably easier than stating the problem, but two pupils who get on a school bus at exactly the same point will often be treated in a different fashion.
The Department of Education said it was exploring a wide range of potential options including those that might reduce expenditure and might expand eligibility "taking into account the wider impact across society such as efforts to reduce air pollution and traffic congestion".
"The views of stakeholders will be sought in a full public consultation exercise before the minister would consider any changes in policy and all relevant impact assessments will be undertaken," a spokeswoman said.
