The board may transport students living less than one and one-half (1½) miles from their attended school when, in its judgment, the age, health, or safety of the student warrants such transportation. The board acknowledges that students who reside within 1½ miles of the nearest appropriate school of attendance may encounter some hazards while walking to and from school. If the hazard(s) encountered as a pedestrian are determined to be so severe that the student is not safe, the board will seek approval from the state department of education to provide transportation for the student.
GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATION OF SAFETY BUSING REQUESTS
When reviewing or evaluating safety busing requests, the board will consider the following factors:
1. The width of the shoulder on each side of the roadway is less than three feet (3’), or where the speed, number and type of vehicles traveling on a roadway indicates that traffic lanes are unsafe for pedestrians.
2. High traffic counts during times when students would be required to travel the area in question.
3. Lack of crossing guards at busy intersections if the normal practice of the district is to provide crossing guards.
4. Lack of regular law enforcement of posted speed limits in areas where students walk to school.
5. Ages of the children in the area of proposed or existing safety busing (generally older students can be expected to accept more responsibility and exercise better judgment than younger students, which may impact a safety busing decision).
6. The existence of one or more railroad crossings on the route to the school.
7. A concentration of heavy truck traffic or areas near large manufacturing plants or office buildings on the route to school.
8. Inadequate pedestrian safeguards near school areas.
9. Temporary hazards such as construction zones, street repairs, excavations or similar hazards.
10. Parks, secluded areas or known sexual offender residences.
11. Inadequate protection around waterways that may be located along one or more routes to school.
TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE
The board will appoint an ad hoc transportation committee whose purpose is to objectively evaluate the hazards encountered on pedestrian routes within 1½ miles from the district’s schools. The committee will be composed of district staff, transportation professionals (city, county, state traffic engineers, and law enforcement professionals), parents, and student advocates (district and/or regional PTA representatives). The committee will meet as necessary to accomplish the objectives set forth in this policy and will comply with the open meeting laws.
The committee will:
- Obtain approval from the board of an objective measuring instrument for assessing the various hazards encountered by student pedestrians. The committee may propose the instrument developed by the state department of education or an alternate instrument.
- Develop and obtain approval from the board of an objective scoring mechanism, which designates a level of hazards that are deemed to pose an unreasonable safety risk for student pedestrians during their walk to and from school. The intent of the objective measuring instrument and related scoring element is to prioritize and/or weight hazards.
- Identify all pedestrian routes within 1½ miles of each of the district schools.
- Identify hazards that a student would likely encounter on the pedestrian routes within 1½ miles of each of the district schools.
- Assess the various hazards which a student may encounter on the pedestrian routes, utilizing the board approved measuring instrument.
- Assess each request for a safety busing site in accordance with the approved measuring instrument, recommending approval or disapproval to the board.
- Reassess each approved safety busing site at a minimum of once every three (3) years, using the approved measuring instrument.
- Report the committee’s recommendations to the board at the board’s regular meeting in August or at other times as requested by the board chairman.
- Recommend proposals to be shared with the appropriate governmental entity(ies) for improving student pedestrian routes by removing or minimizing hazards.
The district will solicit route evaluation requests from all interested patrons. Such requests will be forwarded to the committee for assessment, utilizing the board approved measuring instrument. The district will maintain all documentation of the evaluations of pedestrian route hazards and will make such documentation available to the state department of education, as requested.
The board may initially approve a safety busing request prior to submitting the required forms to the state department of education. All safety busing requests must be approved by the board and submitted to the state department of education by March 1 of the school year to be considered for reimbursement. A copy of the committee’s assessment score must be attached to the request.
SCHOOL ROUTE PLAN
The board authorizes the superintendent or designee(s) to create or update a school route plan to provide for an orderly review of the school area traffic control needs for each of the district’s schools. The plan may consist of a simple map showing streets accessing each school; existing traffic controls; established school routes; and crossings. The number of school crossings should be limited to the fewest possible to safely accommodate the demand.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
LEGAL REFERENCE:
Idaho Code Sections
33-512 – Governance of Schools
33-1006 – Transportation Support Program
33-1501 et seq. – Transportation of Pupils
IDAPA Sections
08.02.02.004 – Standards for Idaho School Buses and Operations
Guidelines for Transporting Students Less Than the Minimum Distance – SDE (rev. 03/28/18)
ADOPTED: April 17, 2024
AMENDED: