The City of Lawrence continues its commitment to prioritizing the safety of our children as they travel to and from school. As part of the ongoing Lawrence Safe Routes to School Program, we are dedicated to fostering secure pathways for families, particularly those living around schools and young pedestrians commuting daily.
The School Area Traffic Control Policy (SATCP), provides information regarding the establishment of school zones, crossings, adult crossing guards and Safe Routes to School (Infrastructure, Encouragement and Traffic Control) maps. The School Area Traffic Control Policy can be found here.
2023 – 2024 Safe Routes to School Revised Routes and Crossing Guard evaluation
The Safe Routes to School Plan was updated based on the USD 497 School Board decision to close Broken Arrow and Pinckney Elementary schools.  The new elementary boundaries for the 2023-2024 school year were used to develop revised SRTS routes, identified pedestrian & bikeway projects and adult crossing guard locations and pilots.
The city implemented and evaluated seven Pilot Crossing Guard locations this fall and all seven did not meet the criteria warranting a permanent crossing guard. These seven routes will no longer have an adult crossing guard starting Monday, Dec. 4. Those routes are:
- Iowa and Clinton Parkway/23rd Street
- Iowa and 27th Street
- 6th Street and Folks Rd
- 6th Street and Stoneridge Dr
- 23rd Street and Louisiana
- 9th Street and Emery
- 6th Street and Michigan
Locations such as 6th St. & Folks Rd., 9th St. & Emery Rd., and other spots were closely monitored over 30-60 days to assess their effectiveness according to our School Area Traffic Control Policy.
The criteria for placing a permanent crossing guard at an intersection controlled by a traffic signal is a minimum of 30 children per day using the crossing. Evaluation data showed 0 children crossing daily at three pilot locations, 1 child crossing daily at three locations, and 4 children crossing daily at one location. The School Area Traffic Control Policy (SATCP) serves as our guiding beacon in establishing school zones, determining crossings, and placing adult crossing guards. For those interested in the specifics, the policy can be accessed here.
Citywide Crossing Guards 2023 – 2024
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 new school boundaries. 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 for one school year 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.For the 2023-24 school year, the timeline for boundary decisions prevented City staff from holding a process to solicit crossing guard requests from the community. Since many of the boundary changes would not have kids currently walking there, evaluating existing conditions would not work. To replace that process for this year, the SRTS Working group evaluated the potential crossings from the pedestrian model. Based on the number of school boundary changes that require K-5 students to cross higher volume streets (6th, 9th, 23rd/Clinton Parkway and Iowa), the SRTS working group is proposing a pilot guard to be placed for 30-60 days at each of the following crossings to give us enough time to evaluate their usage:
• 6th Street & Folks Rd. – Quail Run Elementary
• 6th Street & Stoneridge Dr.- Langston Hughes Elementary
• 6th Street & Michigan St. – Hillcrest Elementary
• 9th Street & Emery Rd. – Hillcrest Elementary
• 23rd Street & Louisiana – Cordley Elementary
• Iowa & Clinton Pkwy/23rd St. – Schwegler Elementary
• Iowa & 27th St. – Schwegler Elementary
Adult Crossing Guard placement will be announced with USD 497 and school staff. Parents and students will be notified about final decisions in advance of removal of pilot guards. The following existing 2022-2023 crossing guards location were evaluated this year and met the criteria for adult crossing guards:
• Inverness Dr. & Sunflower Park Pl. – Sunflower Elementary
• Inverness Dr. & 27th St. – Sunflower Elementary
The following existing 2022-2023 crossing guards location were evaluated this year and did not meet the criteria for adult crossing guards:
• Inverness Dr. & Winged Foot Ct. – Quail Run Elementary
• 19th and Harper – Prairie Park Elementary
• 23rd and Harper – Prairie Park Elementary
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 for the 2023-24 school year
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.
Historically, the City of Lawrence has solely funds the adult crossing guard program and as of 2020 spent $117,000 per year to provide the service.
Links
The Lawrence-Douglas County Safe Routes to School Program is a partnership with Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health. View the Be Active Safe Routes site find school maps.
View the Safe Routes to School Plan.
Find out more about the Safe Routes to School built environment improvements.
Learn about what the City and Lawrence Public Schools does to promote school safety.
