ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A law sponsored by a local lawmaker aims to increase safety for kids walking to school.
Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed the bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Kim Kendall of St. Augustine, who said a St. Johns County school was top of mind when she filed the legislation, according to our news partner Jax Today.
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Elementary school students within 2 miles of their school aren’t guaranteed a bus route — they have to walk, ride their bikes or get a ride to school. But there are exceptions — for example, if a sidewalk is too close to a road.
The legislation Kendall sponsored adds highways to what is classified as “hazardous walking conditions.”
Kendall says the main reason she filed the bill was to secure a bus route for students at Liberty Pines Academy in North St. Johns County. While the school is tucked along a smaller road, one walking route there takes students along an exit to State Road 9B.
Kendall says the road is dangerous, and she doesn’t want kids anywhere near it.
“We have pictures of students biking to school within minutes of cars literally flipping onto the sidewalks,” she told Jacksonville Today. “It is the worst stretch of highway.”
The new law, which goes into effect July 1, will require that the St. Johns County School District create a bus route for those students.
“Any student that walks by a hazardous walking condition — that 2-mile range doesn’t apply to them, even if they’re one block from that school,” Kendall said.
Kendall said she previously worked with local advocates to try to get a bus route added, but, with the change in state law, the change will affect all of Florida, not just students walking to Liberty Pines Academy.
For that, Kendall is thankful.
“It passed unanimously across aisles,” Kendall said. “Everybody understood what was going on.”
But without any state funding attached to the change, it means districts have to figure out how to cover the costs of adding the new bus routes.
The St. Johns County School District is trying to secure funding from the Florida Department of Transportation to cover the costs of the new bus route for Liberty Pines Academy, as well as another for Hickory Creek Elementary near the Switzerland community in northwest St. Johns County.
With a deficit of school bus drivers, adding new routes means drivers may have to squeeze in a second pickup and dropoff.
Still, Deputy Superintendent Brennan Asplen says the new law will be a benefit.
“This is one of those laws that helps students be even more safe, and this allows us to do what we need to do and follow the law,” he said.
To ensure families have the latest information about students’ bus routes, the district is working to launch an online platform called BusPlanner and its mobile application, Chipmunk.
District officials say the platforms will keep people informed about changes to bus routes, as well as up-to-the-minute information about bus route delays.