Safety Busing
Safety busing is the transportation of a student who lives less than 1.5 miles from school when, in the judgment of the Board of Directors, the age, health, and/or safety of the students warrants such action.
The Board will only consider requests for safety busing for students living less than 1.5 miles from school when a student walking to school would entail one or more of the following:
- Unsupervised crossing of a heavily traveled multi-lane roadway requiring beyond-age-level comprehension of complex traffic hazards;
- Walking along an arterial road or highway permitting 50 mile per hour speeds;
- Crossing an intersection in competition with a high volume of right-turning vehicles without the benefit of adult supervised crossing;
- Walking in the traffic lane of an arterial or collector street because of the absence of sidewalks or usable shoulders which are at least three feet wide;
- Walking beside or over unprotected waterways;
- Walking routes which are temporarily interrupted by major road construction, building construction, or utility construction;
- Walking routes interrupted by numerous high traffic volume business driveways; or
- Other unique circumstances or extraordinary factors.
The existence of any of the above criteria does not automatically qualify an area for safety busing. The Board may also consider evaluation factors including but not limited to traffic count, traffic gap times, posted speed, width of roadway, width of walking area, length of time students would be exposed to area of concern, age of pupils, number of pupils, and traffic control signs and markings as well as written comments from parents, patrons, and school personnel prior to a vote on the issue. Further, the Board shall consider the criteria set out in its measuring and scoring instrument, with a an appropriate “cut off” for safety busing purposes when the scoring element used indicates hazards that are “reasonable” for students to encounter during their walk to and from school, which by this reference is incorporated and attached to this policy as Exhibit 1.
Each year, no later than the regular Board meeting in August, the Board shall review and vote on all requests for new safety busing locations. The Board may annually approve the formation of an ad hoc supplemental transportation committee for the purpose of objectively evaluating all hazardous routes less than 1.5 miles from the student’s home to school, using the Board approved measuring instrument. The Executive Director or designee is directed to review all existing safety busing locations at intervals of no more than three years.
Cross References: 8100 Transportation
8120 Bus Routes, Stops and Non-Transportation Zones
Legal Reference: I.C. § 33-5208 Public Charter School Financial Support
Other Reference: Idaho State Board of Education, Standards for Idaho School Buses and Operations, http://www.sde.idaho.gov/student-transportation/files/forms-lists/regulations/SISBO-Manual.pdf
Policy History:
Adopted on: 7/26/2021
Revised on:
Reviewed on:
Exhibit 1 is the measuring instrument form used by the Charter School.