Stay Safe While Walking to School

Ashley Svaty, Nutrition, Food Safety and Health Agent

Children should get at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day; allowing your children to walk to school will greatly help your children reach this goal. There are many benefits of walking to school, but it’s best that young children don’t begin walking to school without an adult until they are about 10 years old or in 5th grade. HealthyChildren.org recommends this because younger children are more impulsive and less cautious around traffic and may not fully understand potential dangers. Use walking with your child as an opportunity to talk about the rules of the road, such as teaching about traffic signs, street signs, directions, and model correct behaviors when crossing streets. This is also a great time to familiarize your children with their neighborhood and to have great conversation with your child. Some towns have worked to improve student safety by designating “Safe Routes to School”. If your community has a Safe Routes to School program, follow it or begin a walking school bus and invite families in your neighborhood to walk to and from school together as a group. Parents can take turns walking with the group, but make sure parents observe all traffic signals, always observe safety laws, and look both ways before crossing the street and continue to watch for vehicles. Remind children often that drivers may not always see them so they have to be on the look-out.

HealthyChildren.org give the following tips when your child is ready to walk to school on their own:

• Make sure they continue to use a safe route.
• If they need to cross any streets on the way to school, practice safe street crossing with them before the start of school.
• Ideally, they should walk with at least one neighbor child or older sibling.
• Make sure they know how to say “no” if someone they don’t know offers a ride, and that they yell and run for help if needed.
• Explain to them that it is not safe to use a cell phone or text while walking, which makes them less aware of traffic.
• Choose brightly colored backpacks, jackets and other accessories, ideally with reflective materials for days when it begins to get dark earlier.

For more information about walking or biking to school, please visit https://bit.ly/1MzlTPI