Free public transport for Kyiv schoolchildren returns on September 1: how to get a digital and plastic student ticket

From September 1, 2026, students of general education institutions in Kyiv will once again be entitled to free travel on the city's municipal public transport. This was announced by the press service of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA), as reported by RBC-Ukraine. The benefit, which was in effect in previous academic years, is being renewed in an updated digital format: the key tool for accessing free travel becomes the electronic student ticket, integrated into the "Kyiv Digital" mobile app.

Digital ticket: free and instant

The main and most convenient way to obtain the benefit is to generate a digital student ticket directly in the "Kyiv Digital" app. According to the KCSA, this requires having a profile verified with the educational institution's data. As clarified by the administration, the app allows you to generate a digital student ticket for free as soon as the school confirms the student's data. This means that, unlike the plastic version, the digital ticket requires no payment or waiting — it becomes available almost immediately upon confirmation.

Plastic ticket: 120 hryvnia and up to a month of waiting

For those who prefer a physical card, the KCSA offers a plastic student ticket for 120 hryvnia. The production time is up to one month. At the same time, as emphasized by the administration, the digital and plastic tickets will have a single number and a shared balance, eliminating the need to duplicate funds or link to two separate accounts. An additional advantage of the plastic card is the ability to instantly block it in the app's settings in case of loss — this protects against unauthorized use.

Parental control and transferring access to the child

The KCSA reminds parents that the benefit on public transport can only be used by the student from their own smartphone. After the ticket is issued, the parent needs to transfer the number and PIN code to the child so that they can add the card to their account in the app. In the ticket settings, the student can enable the creation of QR tickets in quick access, allowing them to be generated in one step directly from the main screen. To give parents peace of mind, the app includes a parental control mechanism: the student can grant permission to view the travel history by entering the parent's phone number in the settings of their ticket.

Contradictory data

In addition to confirming the renewal of the benefit for schoolchildren, the information space contains statements that create a certain inconsistency. For example, the publication "Korrespondent" (korrespondent.net) reported that some Kyiv residents would temporarily lose the right to free travel, which may indicate restrictions for certain categories of passengers or technical failures in the system that, however, did not affect the main body of students. On the other hand, Russian State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov, in an interview for svpressa.ru, expressed the opinion that introducing free travel for schoolchildren would lead to children "misbehaving" — this is a political assessment unrelated to the actual KCSA rules, but it demonstrates the difference in public positions on the issue of free public transport. Neither of these statements refutes the fact of the renewal of the benefit for Kyiv students from September 1, 2026, as recorded by the KCSA press service.

Context: the new academic year and the school meal system

The resumption of free travel takes effect as part of the preparation for the new 2026/2027 academic year, in which, according to previously published data, Kyiv schools will operate on an updated schedule taking into account vacation periods. In parallel, Ukraine is reforming the school meal system, which, together with the transport benefit, forms a package of support measures for students and their families. Students who are enrolling in the capital's schools for the first time or who have not previously obtained an electronic ticket need to complete the registration and data verification procedure in "Kyiv Digital" before the start of the academic year to avoid delays on the first day of classes.