School Area Traffic Control & Crossing Guards

Generally crossing guards are at their location 30 minutes prior to the start of school and 30 minutes after school ends.

It is the City’s best intention to ensure a guard is at their assigned location on school days; however, there may be instances a guard isn’t there due to absences.

When feasible, City staff will provide coverage for adult crossing guard absences at the discretion of Division and Department heads with available staff. Ongoing City programs and operations may not always allow for coverage of adult crossing guard absences. In the event that City staff cannot provide coverage for an adult crossing guard absence, City staff will notify staff from the affected school.

A pilot crossing guard location is a trial crossing based on where we anticipate students to be crossing based on established routes and student locations. Adult Crossing Guards will be in place for 30-60 days, and evaluated by staff to determine if the crossing meets warrants for placing a permanent crossing guard as outlined in the School Area Traffic Control Policy. Once pilot crossings have been evaluated and if they meet warrants, they will be added to as Adult Crossing guard locations and be reevaluated every 5 years.

Locations that were evaluated and did not meet the warrants in the last five years will be subject to re-evaluation in 5 years. The Safe Routes to School Plan recognizes there are other options available to facilitate maintaining crossing guards at intersections that do not meet warrants, such as assembling volunteer guards to assist students crossing the street. Additionally community led Walking School

Buses are also an option to encourage students to walk and wheel to school. Learn more about how to start a walking school bus.

In a typical year, new crossing guard locations can be requested in writing to the Municipal Services and Operations Department in coordination with the Site Council or USD 497. The requests will be reviewed and recommended for evaluation by the SRTS Working Group. Once data is collected and the location is evaluated, the SRTS Working Group will review the results and recommend crossing guard placement.

Requests for new crossing guards will be evaluated against the warrants based on potential crossings. If the potential crossings meet warrants, a guard will be placed and actual counts will be taken while school is in session and the guard is in place. If the actual counts meet warrants, the guard will be maintained. If the actual counts do not meet warrants, the guard will be removed at the end of the school year. Potential crossings will be calculated based on the most recent geocoded student address information provided by USD 497 and the pedestrian model routing that will use the sidewalk network to assess routes students would use to get to their assigned school. The number of students that the model reports as using the segment where the adult crossing guard is requested will be recorded as the potential crossing number. Recommendations to add crossing guards will be considered by the City Commission prior to the beginning of the following school year in conjunction with the City’s budget process. Requested locations shall be evaluated no more than once every five years.

Crossings that do not meet criteria in the SATCP will not have an adult crossing guard and crossings that do meet the criteria will have a guard placed.

After the approval of the Safe Routes to School Plan, the Multi-Modal Transportation Commission (MMTC) scheduled discussions and review of the policy. The MMTC reviewed the crossing guard data and School Area Traffic Control policy at their Study Session on March 1, 2021, and at their meeting on June 7, 2021. The MMTC asked for additional data regarding equity and potential usage of crossings. At the MMTC meeting on August 2, 2021, information was presented regarding the equity impacts of removing crossing guards by using the transportation-disadvantaged population analysis, which incorporates low-moderate income households, minorities, individuals with mobility disabilities, individuals with less than a high school education, single-parent households, zero vehicle households, youth and senior citizens to evaluate potential crossings. Additionally, to calculate potential use a crossing could have the pedestrian model mapped routes between origins (student homes) and schools. Based on this additional information and the addition of a potential crossings evaluation for requested crossing guard locations, the MMTC recommended approval of the School Area Traffic Control Policy to the City Commission. The School Area Traffic Control Policy (including crossing guard placement) was approved at their August 17, 2021 meeting.  In 2023, the SRTS Plan was updated based on school boundary changes and school closures, new SRTS routes were established and crossing guard locations were evaluated. A new pilot crossing guard program was created to place guards at locations with anticipated student crossings based on the new school boundaries and routes.  Find out more about the plan update and crossing evaluation process here.

The City of Lawrence funds the school crossing guard program. In 2024, the program cost $157,000.