• Serious Safety Hazards

    The district provides free transportation to and from school for resident students who within 1.5 miles of their school of residence boundary, but for whom walking would constitute a serious hazard due to vehicular traffic or rail crossings, as determined in accordance with the standards established by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT).

    The school district is committed to being in compliance with the Illinois School Code and the Illinois Department of Transportation Findings and Instructions related to serious safety hazards.  Due to the comprehensive nature of the IDOT assessments we do not routinely analyze bus eligibility across all the neighborhoods in our large district annually.   Some areas in our district have not been assessed in a quite some time and the district is currently evaluating every area that is receiving transportation on a serious safety hazard eligibility to make a current determination if the hazardous conditions exist and if they meet the serious safety hazard criteria that is defined by law.

    Bus routes and conditions are continuously being evaluated to ensure we are in compliance with State Law and Board of Education Policy. If eligibility for your area changes, families will be notified well in advance so they can make necessary adjustments.

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – Serious Safety Hazards

    1. For which students must a school board provide free transportation to and from school?
      Community consolidated, community unit, consolidated, consolidated high school, optional elementary unit districts, combined high school-unit districts and combined school districts (if the combined district includes a district that was previously required to provide free transportation), and any newly created elementary or high school districts resulting from a high school-unit conversion, a unit-to-dual conversion, or a multi-unit conversion (if the newly created district includes any area that was previously required to provide transportation) are required to provide free transportation for students residing 1.5 miles or more from any school to which they are assigned for attendance, unless adequate public transportation is available.
    2. What laws or local policies govern how and when free school district transportation is provided?
      Here are the links to the applicable Illinois Statutes and D204 Board Policy:
    1. For purposes of requiring a school board to bus students to and from school, how is the 1.5-mile minimum distance measured?
      The 1.5-mile minimum distance is measured from the exit of the property where the student resides to the point where students are normally unloaded at the school attended. The distance is measured by determining the shortest distance on normally traveled roads or streets including pathways created by school districts or other groups on public land that may be used by pupils to avoid a more hazardous route. The school district does not use GPS based measurement tools. Our transportation routing software calculates the distance and uses the county mapping as the base map in the software and it has been very accurate. We regularly verify that geopoints and addresses are accurately reflected in the base map.
    2. When must a school board provide free transportation for students living less than 1.5 miles from school?
      A school board must provide free transportation for students living less than 1.5 miles from school when conditions are such that walking, either to or from the school to which a student is assigned for attendance or to or from a pick-up point or bus stop, constitutes a serious hazard to the safety of the pupil due to vehicular traffic. How a serious hazard due to the vehicular traffic or rail crossings is determined by the standards established by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT).
      Transportation need not be provided if adequate public transportation is available
    3. How is “adequate public transportation” defined?
      “Adequate transportation for the public” is defined as a student’s ability to get to school by walking, one way, along normally traveled roads or streets less than one and one-half miles from home to school; bicycling; or riding available mass transit routes.
    4. Does the district have to provide transportation for my child if it is too dangerous to walk?
      Article 29-3 states that school districts may provide free transportation for any pupil living less than one and one-half miles from the school attended where conditions are such that walking, either to or from the assigned school or to or from a school bus pick-up point, constitutes a serious hazard to the safety of the pupil that is due to vehicular traffic or rail crossings. The district must have a Department of Transportation approved safety hazard application on file. Such transportation shall not be provided if adequate transportation for the public is available.
    5. Who determines whether a safety hazard exists?
      A family can petition the school district to conduct a study of the walking routes for their student. If the determination is made that a safety hazard exists, the school district will submit an application to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The Illinois Department of Transportation will then determine whether the application and findings meet the DOT requirements.
    6. When was the Illinois Department of Transportation Serious Safety Hazard Standards created?
      Under normal, safe conditions Illinois pupils are only bused when they live more than 1.5 miles from school facilities, farther than is considered a reasonable walking or biking distance. In 1980 however, Section 29-3 of the School Code (105 ILCS 5/29-3) declared that when walking conditions either to or from the school is considered a serious hazard to the safety of the pupil local school busing of distances less than 1.5 miles is allowed, though not mandated.
    7. What factors are considered when evaluating a serious safety hazard?
      A serious safety hazard can result from the presence of numerous combinations of factors such as high vehicle speeds and volume, wide street crossings, lack of sidewalks and railroad tracks. Just what constitutes a serious safety hazard is determined by the local school board in accordance with guidelines developed by the Illinois Department of Transportation, in consultation with the State Superintendent of Education. In these guidelines, serious safety hazards are categorized into four basic types that pupils walking to or from school encounter: walking along a roadway, walking on a roadway, crossing a roadway, and crossing railroad tracks. Each of these types is defined by 5-7 relevant factors, which in combination contribute to creating distinct hazardous situations for pupils.

    The four types of serious safety hazard types and their contributing factors are as follows:

      • Type I - Walking along a Roadway - Determined by predominant age of pupils, location of walkway, speed and volume of traffic, length of hazardous section.
      • Type II - Walking on a Roadway - Determined by predominant age of pupils, reason for walking on roadway, speed and volume of traffic, length of hazardous section.
      • Type III - Crossing a Roadway - Determined by predominant age of pupil, type of intersection controls present, speed and volume of traffic, width of roadway.
      • Type IV - Crossing Railroad Tracks - Determined by predominant age of pupil, crossing protection and number of tracks, daily number of trains.
    1. How is the scoring of serious safety hazards conducted?
      The factors contributing to each type of hazard are assigned point values from 0.5 to 5. A serious safety hazard is said to exist if a single hazard totals 12 points or any combination of two hazards total 20 points. A form from the Illinois Department of Transportation provides applying school boards tables to keep track of points and a publication, “School Safety Busing and Instructions for Submitting Findings,” walks them through the application process.
    2. Is the Board of Education allowed to contribute judgement points to the scoring of the serious safety hazard?
      State statute allows school boards to add up to additional 2 points to any hazard. These are known as board judgments. School boards are required to provide a reason for the additional points, which include, but are not limited to, unusual accident experience, inadequate sight distance, railroad switching at a crossing, and a high volume of vehicles crossing the walkway during the time pupils are walking to and from school, such as at a shopping center, major gas station, etc. For board judgement points, we can only consider adding judgement points for warranted traffic situations not addressed within the primary criteria within the IDOT Serious Safety Hazard Findings. We must maintain the legal criteria and integrity of the evaluation and not manufacture or create a hazard if it does not meet the serious safety hazard criteria.
    3. When was the “School Safety Busing and Instructions for Submitting Findings” established?
      The Illinois Department of Transportation established the instructions for evaluating and submitting serious safety hazard findings and determinations in 1980. During the 43-year life cycle of the School Safety Busing program, the scoring system and application forms have undergone several revisions. The most significant change happened early in the program, less than a year after it was launched. In 1981, responding to early feedback on the application process, IDOT modified the scoring system in a number of areas. The largest change had to do with the number of points awarded for the grade of the pupils affected by the hazard. On the original form the grade of the pupil was broken down between k-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 with a possible 5, 3, 1 and 0 points possible respectively. This was changed to k-8 and 9-12 with 5 or 2 points possible.
      Similarly, the number of points given for volume and speed of traffic, railroad tracks, and the length of hazardous road sections was increased. Also, while on the original form it was possible to receive zero points in several fields, on the new form this was changed to 0.5. The result of the combined point changes was a lowering of the threshold for approving hazards.
      It is important to note, however, that the revisions did not in any way invalidate any previously approved applications. The revisions allow the same, or additional, pupils to qualify as would have qualified under the former guidelines.
    4. I don’t feel the district is cooperating or addressing our concerns. What can I do?
      The district follows our legal requirement as it relates to district provided transportation on a serious safety hazard eligibility and the criteria, we must legally use to conclude a serious safety hazard exists is defined by statute.
      Transportation service eligibility is based on the student meeting one of the following five criteria:
      • Resident students who live (1) a distance of 1.5 miles or more from their school of residence boundary
      • Resident students who live within 1.5 miles of their school of residence boundary, but for whom walking would constitute a serious hazard due to the vehicular traffic or rail crossings, as determined in accordance with the standards established by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)
      • Resident students who live within 1.5 miles of their school of residence boundary, but the students would be exposed to a course or pattern of criminal activity defined by Section 10 of the Illinois Street Gang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act (740 ILCS 147/10)
      • Resident student with special needs receiving transportation as a related service defined by the students Individual Education Plan (IEP)
      • Non-Resident students that are eligible for McKinney-Vento Homeless services that are eligible to continue their education with the school district

    Unless a student meets one of the five transportation service eligibility criteria listed above, the student is not eligible for transportation service and no transportation service will be provided in compliance with state law and Board of Education policy without exception.

    1. Does the school district take into consideration winter weather conditions when evaluating safety hazards?
      Rain, icy and snow are considered temporary conditions. Inclement weather conditions are not permanent serious safety hazards, they are temporary conditions that are able to be mitigated by the residents. The school district is not able to determine that a permanent safety hazard exists for a temporary condition and classify it as a permanent serious safety hazard in order to provide transportation service.
    2. Does the district evaluate speed limit compliance as part of the serious safety hazard evaluation?
      The school district does conduct a through traffic evaluation that includes vehicular volume, speed, GAP distance and vehicle size. However, speed limit compliance is not in the jurisdiction of the school district. If the school district has supporting data to show there is a speed enforcement issue, we share the information with the Police Department to ask them to do a high visibility traffic campaign. GAP is data that has been collected with the purpose of determining when no traffic (or gaps) occur at the study site. Once a gap occurs, this format also records how long the gap lasts. Gap data is shown in seconds of time.
    3. How often does the school district evaluate areas for serious safety hazards?
      The school district annually re-assesses current hazard boundaries on file with the district. Due to the size of the district, the annual assessment may take longer than one year. If during the reassessment, the District finds that conditions have changed from previous determinations or if the District no longer has previous information on the determinations, a full new evaluation is conducted on the area.
      If the district does not have on file a hazard area, the district does not evaluate every area in D204 boundaries unless petitioned by a resident. If parents believe that a vehicular safety hazard exists for their child walking up to one and one-half miles to school, they may send a written petition to the Director of Support Operations and request that a safety hazard study be done, and the findings be submitted to the Department of Transportation.
    4. What happens to the previous determination now that a new evaluation has been conducted?
      Once a new Illinois Department of Transportation Serious Safety Hazard is completed and the current conditions are studied, it completely negates and overwrites any previous hazard study or determination that may have been in place whether its active or not.
    5. If I disagree with the new determination, how do I have a new evaluation completed?
      Since the District has completed a recent full IDOT Serious Hazard Study on the area in compliance with IDOTs instructions and the walking routes do not qualify for a hazard for a student in the 9th through 12th grade levels, unless there is new data/information OR there are changes to the walking routes that would warrant a new evaluation to be conducted, the current evaluation would stand.