For millions of Brazilian students, school transportation is not an option, but the only way to get to school. In the reality of the rural context, school transportation is one of the most important and fundamental services for access to education and social inclusion. Given this problem, we realize the need to discuss and democratize information that allows the understanding of federal investments in rural school transport. Thus, in the present work, we aimed to describe the path of public school transport policy in waterway mode in the state of Amazonas. To this end, we developed an exploratory study, based on literature review and documentary analysis, involving constitutions, resolutions, decrees, laws and governmental actions relevant to the theme. We structured our text in two interconnected topics: in the first, we present the peculiarities of waterway school transportation in the Amazon, emphasizing the challenges for the realization of education in traditional communities in the rural context; in the following, we describe the path of public school transport policy in the state, highlighting the difficulties for its compliance in waterway mode. After analyzing the collected information since the Constitution of 1984, we understand that there has been a significant evolution of the public policy of school transportation; however, there is a constant struggle for the effectiveness of waterway transportation of students in the state of Amazonas, whose particularities make difficult the reach and applicability of government actions.
