FOUR-YEAR-OLDS could be forced to spend hours on a bus if school closures go ahead.
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Parents in remote areas of Tasmania say the transport ramifications for their children are serious, if the 20 threatened state schools are closed.
Kelly Tubb says she is worried about the kindergarten children enrolled to start at Bracknell Primary School next year.
Three of her children already spend 35 minutes on the bus to get there.
Her two-year-old son Harry would travel twice the distance if Bracknell primary closed before he starts school in 2013.
She said that raised issues about suitable child restraints, toilet stops and a lack of exercise.
"We're not just whingeing because our kids have to travel an extra half an hour, but rather about what happens as a result of that extra time," she said.
Vanessa Fysh's two children Britney Pyke, 10, and Brock Pyke, 8, travel 15 minutes on a bus from their home in Royal George to Avoca Primary School.
That trip will triple to 45 minutes if their school closes and they are relocated to Campbell Town District High School.
She is most worried about her three-year-old son Jackson, who starts school next year.
"That's a long way for a four-year-old to go," she said.
"It's just going to wear them out ... By the time they get home they'll be exhausted."
Linda Burns's youngest daughter Kimberly, 10, attends the Fingal campus of St Marys District High School.
She drives her 14 kilometres from their Tyne Valley home to Mathinna, where she catches a bus to school.
Her eldest daughter Bridgette, 13, catches a second bus from Fingal to St Marys campus - which is twice as far.
"It's the younger children of the area that people are really concerned about," she said.
"I know it was a long way for my kids to go when they were little to Fingal, let alone extra travel on top of that. They are buggered by the end of the day."
The Education Department says average travelling time for students by bus to a new school has been taken into account.
It recommends no primary student travel more than 30 minutes each way in a day, and no secondary student more than 50 minutes.