(a) All children, who attend nonpublic schools in the county, which schools do not receive state aid, and who reside on, along or near the public highways of the county, on which there is operated a public school bus or conveyance provided by the board of education of the county for transporting children to and from the public schools of the county, shall be entitled to transportation on such buses or conveyances, if facilities therefor are available. Such transportation may be provided for them by the board of education of the county, subject to the conditions set forth in this section from a point on the public highways nearest or most accessible to their respective homes to a point on the public highways nearest or most accessible to their respective schools, without changing the routes of such school buses or conveyances. Such transportation may be provided by the board of education for all the children attending schools described herein upon the same terms and conditions as may be established by the board of education for children attending public schools.
(b) The board of county commissioners is hereby authorized to appropriate annually to the board of education of the county, from any funds received by the county for any general county purpose and not derived from any tax levied on real property, such sum as the board of education may request to enable it to defray any costs incurred by it in carrying into effect the provisions of the subsection (a) and to establish new bus routes, in the discretion of the board of education, for the transportation to and from school of children attending schools not receiving state aid. The transportation of children to and from schools not receiving state aid shall be upon such reasonable terms and conditions as the board of education may from time to time determine, but in no event shall the amount charged children attending such schools for using such buses or conveyances be greater or less than the amount charged children attending the public schools for the same kind of transportation.
(Code 1941, Chapter 422, § 1; Code 1959, § 14-2)