Does your child walk to school? New grants could make their journey safer

INDIANAPOLIS — Each child's journey to school is different: some ride in a car or a bus, while others use their legs to walk or bike to class. A new series of grants hopes to make it easier for children to make their own way to school.

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Health By Design's Safe Routes To School Grants will award up to $20,000 for projects and events to encourage safely walking or biking to class.

"There is sometimes a lack of proper infrastructure allowing students to navigate from their neighborhood to their school safely," said Health By Design's Ashlyn Devine. "Is there a lack of a crosswalk? Is the lighting poor? Are cars just speeding through where they need to be walking? Is there no buffer between the sidewalk and the street?"

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Applications for the grants are open through August 22. The grants could fund a wide range of projects across the state such as repainting crosswalks, sidewalk improvements, and purchasing bicycles for children.

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Devine said she grew up walking to school every day. She believes embracing walking could keep kids healthy and ease the burden on parents who shuttle their children to class.

"Once we have students who can walk or bike to school, it decreases congestion in the school dropoff and pickup zone," Devine said. "It allows drivers to understand that students will navigate the space more and they need to pay more attention."

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This is the second round of Safe Routes for Schools grant funding. The first round helped support projects including improvements around Anna Brochhausen School 88 in the Community Heights neighborhood.

Those improvements supplemented a separate safety measure, a temporary tactical urbanism installation on 10th Street through the neighborhood in late 2023.

"We went from a crash every third day to going two weeks and only having a single crash," said Community Heights Neighborhood Association president Leslie Schulte in January 2024 after the tactical urbanism installation was removed.

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Devine said the grant funding is continuing to support children in Community Heights.

"They will actually be doing a walk audit around IPS 88, where they walk the streets around a school zone and identify what issues may exist," Devine said. "They are also potentially getting some permanent infrastructure improvements as a result of that tactical urbanism project."

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Health By Design expects to award this round of Safe Routes to School grants in September.