Using your School Opal card
The School Opal card gives eligible students free or discounted travel between home and school using metro, train, bus, ferry and light rail services you nominate in your application.
School travel passes are not transferable. Each school travel pass is issued to a specific student and is printed with the eligible student's name. Fines may apply for misuse.
Student must comply with the Student Codes of Conduct.
It's essential for all school students to travel with a valid school travel pass. If you are using a School Opal card, you must tap on and tap off every time when using public transport to travel to and from school. This allows us to better understand customer travel patterns and adjust the services provided if necessary.
School travel passes can only be used for approved travel on school days between the student's home and school/TAFE college between 6.30am and 7pm (6.30am and 9.30pm for TAFE). If a School Opal card is used outside these hours, students may see a message code appear on the Opal card reader.
| Information message | Reason | What to do |
|---|---|---|
|
The card is not approved for this service | Update your details |
|
The card is not valid for this date, for example it is being used outside school term | Refer to When to use your travel pass |
|
The card is not valid for the current day type, for example it is being used on weekends | Refer to When to use your travel pass |
| 83, 91, 93 | The card has not been read properly by the reader | Please try and tap on again |
The School Opal card gives eligible students free or discounted travel between home and school using any mode of transport, train, bus, ferry and light rail services you nominate in your application.
Students travelling on an existing School Opal card can update their details to include Sydney Light Rail or Newcastle Transport Services.
Free school travel passes do not include travel to and from:
- before and after school care or child-minding premises.
- before and after school activities.
- school excursions.
- sports events.
- work experience.
- Vocational Education and Training (VET) at a location away from where the student is enrolled.
- multi-campus high schools, weekend schools, pre-schools or mini-schools (except for full-time geographically isolated distance education students).
Each child and adult in the excursion group requires their own Opal card.
Child/Youth Opal cards are for personal travel including school excursions using public transport.
Schools are encouraged to ask parents to provide their child with a Child/Youth Opal card prior to school excursions. It is important to ensure there are sufficient funds on each card to cover the excursion travel expenses.
The School Opal card is only for travel to and from school. So it’s a good idea to get a Child/Youth Opal card for travel after hours, on weekends or during school holidays.
Children and school students aged 4–15 years and secondary students aged 16 years and over are entitled to concession fares on public transport in NSW. Secondary students aged 16 and over will need a NSW/ACT Senior Secondary Student Concession Card as proof of entitlement when travelling on these fares.