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BACK-TO-SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Back-to-school safety programs can both help children improve their traffic safety practices and encourage motorists to watch out for school children. This activities guide offers several suggestions for programs oriented toward children headed back to school: general pupil transportation and specific pedestrian and bicycle information.

NHTSA has several publications that address safe travel to and from school in all modes of transportation.

10 Safety Steps to School is a kit designed for use by educators. It includes a variety of reproducible materials, including a coloring page, pledge sheet and sticker.

Back to School Safely is a colorful game booklet and learning tool for elementary school children. It has fun messages about bicycle, pedestrian, school bus and child passenger safety issues with a board game featuring "Gus the Bus," a coloring page, a crossword puzzle and even a rap poem. It is designed to complement all back-to-school safety programs, and can be used several different ways:

• classroom teaching aid (several students can play the game together);
• a take-home piece (the center informational and coloring section is copy-ready);
• a give-away at fairs, safety events or back-to-school night.

To order, see Program Publications for Planner 19 in this Planner.

Walk Our Children to School Day

National Walk Our Children to School Week (October 4-9, 1999), centering on National Walk Our Children to School Day on Wednesday, October 6, 1999, is a joint effort sponsored with the Partnership for a Walkable America (PWA) and other organizations. Parents, educators and community leaders will join together to:

• promote healthy behaviors;
• create community awareness about how walkable our children’s routes to school are; and
• encourage families to spend time together.

Recently the Partnership published a National Walk Our Children to School Day report to highlight activities that took place last year. It is a good resource for ideas for communities planning to participate in the 1999 event. This report and materials to support community participation in National Walk Our Children to School Day are available from the National Safety Council (address on page 4) under "Pedestrian Safety" or on the Web at http://www.hsrc.unc.edu/publicaware/walk/.

School Bus Safety

Although a school bus is the safest way to transport children to school, it is not without its hazards. Deaths to children in and around school buses are relatively few each year, but the greatest number of school bus-related pedestrian deaths occur to children ages 5-7 outside the bus. A school-and-community partnership to raise awareness about school bus safety should be part of every fall traffic safety program.

School Bus Safety Week is October 17-23, 1999, and is the perfect time to rev up your program. This year’s theme, "Stop on Red – Kids Ahead," emphasizes the important role motorists play in school bus safety. The campaign focuses attention on the need for all motorists to obey their state’s law requiring them to stop and not pass school buses stopped to load/unload children. All states have laws requiring motorists to stop when the red lights of a school bus are flashing. The School Bus Safety Week campaign poster will be available in late June. To receive a poster and campaign kit, write to:

Although school bus safety procedures need to be in place by the first day of school, school bus safety campaigns often aren’t implemented until October, when everyone is settled into school and you can get the attention of children and adults on this important topic. Publications and materials are available from NHTSA to help you reach children, bus drivers, parents, teachers and school administrators, and – most importantly – the motorists who share the road with school buses. See Program Publications for Planner 19 in this Planner or fax a request to NHTSA at 202-493-2062.

More and more school districts are finding a new class of passenger on their buses: infants and toddlers. Just like in the family car, pre-school age children need to be in child restraint systems when transported in a school bus. To help those charged with the safe transportation of these very young passengers, NHTSA recently published Guideline for the Safe Transportation of Pre-School Age Children in School Buses. The new Guideline was developed to assist school and other transportation managers in developing and implementing appropriate policies and procedures for transporting pre-school age children. It discusses selection and maintenance of child safety seats, school bus seat spacing, restraint anchorages, emergency evacuation procedures, and driver and monitor training. For more information, see Program Publications for Planner 19 in this Planner.

NOYS at School