With the start of a new school year, academic leaders commit to creating safer learning environments for students. But there’s a safety risk that is sometimes overlooked: the daily commute to and from school.
Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) National Center for Statistics and Analysis shows that, from 2013 to 2022, 76 of the 198 school-age children who died in school-transportation-related traffic were pedestrians.
According to the latest survey from the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, 40.6 million illegal school bus passing violations occurred in the 2024-2025 school year. And SafeKids.org notes that 80% of students are unsafe crossing the street, while one in three drivers execute unsafe drop-off or pick-up behavior.
All of this leads to student dangers that can be prevented, and what we need to keep in mind as another school year begins. Recent tragedies include a 10-year-old girl who was killed while riding a bike in a crosswalk near her school in Port Orange, Florida; a 13-year-old girl in Texas was hit by a vehicle while exiting her school bus; and an 8-year-old boy was struck and killed while crossing the street near his school in Bakersfield, California.
These tragedies are a reminder that even marked crosswalks and flashing lights don’t stop distracted drivers.
Dangerous drivers pose a risk around every turn
School buses remain the safest form of student transportation, but the dangers exponentially increase when students are (un)loading the bus and crossing the street. Data showed that in just one day, across 37 states, nearly 70,000 vehicles were reported illegally passing a stopped school bus. This is a time when students are crossing the street and waiting at the curb.
And while many students take public transportation, the rest are being dropped off in and around school zones or are walking along dangerous sections of roads where many drivers are distracted. Several studies have been conducted in multiple parts of the country that highlight the risks parents and students are facing when walking to and from school or during school drop-off and pickup:
- In Clark County, Nevada, 11,901 speeding violations were recorded in three days across just five schools. One of these schools had nearly 500 vehicles traveling more than 60 mph.
- A Jacksonville, Florida-area speeding study over a three‑day period caught nearly 10,000 potential violations across 11 school zones. At one elementary school alone, violations reached 43% of morning drop‑off traffic.
- A pilot study in Clay County, Florida, registered 6,000 speeding vehicles in 72 hours, including 551 cars driving 60+ mph in an active school zone.
These are only a few examples of motorists who are distracted and not held accountable for the peril they put students in every day.
Increased support for school safety programs
Many states recognize these dangers and have adopted programs to mitigate these safety risks to children. Laws in at least 26 states allow cameras to be placed on the outside of school buses to record illegal school bus passings.
Speed safety cameras were in operation in 287 U.S. communities in 22 states and the District of Columbia during 2024, according to The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety data.
There is also strong and growing support for automated school zone and bus stop enforcement across the country, with 77% of people endorsing school zone safety camera programs, while 96% support the cameras for enforcing school bus stop-arm laws. This shows that parents, school administrators and the community want an increased focus on student safety.
Districts and municipalities that have deployed automated stop-arm cameras and school zone speed safety cameras say they are experiencing tangible results, reducing dangerous traffic violations and protecting students.
For example, Verra Mobility, a provider of both school bus and school zone automated enforcement programs, recently released its proprietary data for the 2024-2025 school year that shows:
- 87% of drivers who received a speeding violation during the school year did not get a second.
- Automated school bus stop arm programs experienced a 67% drop in illegal school bus passings from the beginning of the school year compared to the end, with 98% of violators not repeating this dangerous maneuver.
The results show that these programs work to educate drivers and the public, helping to change dangerous behavior.
What school leaders can do
Technology alone isn’t enough to create a safe school zone ecosystem. It takes administrative support, district leadership and community involvement to push for the required programs, permissions, tools and partnerships.
To make the programs successful, leadership throughout the community needs to work together to educate the public and make smart safety enforcement accessible, equitable and effective.
These programs typically require no taxpayer-funded capital. Funding comes from the ticket fines, which also serve as behavioral enforcement. Third-party vendors provide equipment and manage the administrative details of collecting the fines; districts benefit from improved safety and supplemental revenue to improve their safety programs or to help fund more bus drivers.
In states that allow automated enforcement, several initiatives can support these types of programs in the community:
- Conduct a school zone and route risk assessment using violation data or reports from bus drivers
- Consider a pilot program with clearly defined goals and a public education plan
- Use real-time data dashboards to guide staffing, law enforcement support, and crosswalk placement
For those in states that do not permit enforcement:
- Collaborate with local and state education associations to build momentum for legislation
- Collect evidence—video footage, incident reports, bus driver testimony—to show the problem
- Engage your school board, city council, and parent groups to amplify support
