ROCKLEDGE, Fla. — Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization is asking parents to take a survey to make students’ routes to school safer.

  • SCTPO wants cities to apply for 'Safe Routes to School' program
  • Officials asking parents to do survey on school route safety issues
  • Applications for program reviewed and then ranked based on need

Safe Routes to School is a federal program created to help make routes to and from schools safer for students who bike or walk. The project encompasses a 2-mile radius from the school.

The application process is done by the respective city. After the data is collected, engineers do a study of their own. Some examples of the needed projects are fixing a broken sidewalk, a gap on the road, an ending sidewalk, or a crosswalk.

“(These are) much needed projects — that could be a gap on the sidewalk (or) a crosswalk. A lot of that will come from the parents, of what their kids are seeing when they go on their routes to school,” explained Abby Hemenway SCTPO.

About 10 percent of all students in the county walk or bike to school, and one of them is Lajoyce Jones's daughter, who attends Endeavour Elementary School. Jones is filling out the survey hoping for change.

“You see all these bushes… there’s a lot of them up there. Any pervert can be standing there waiting for a change to get a kid,” she said.

Another student, Amaya Francis, is a Rockledge High School student and also walks to school. She had a close encounter with a car and says her mom is filling out the survey.

“One time I was passing a crosswalk, and it said I could go, and a car was behind me. It was scary,” she said.

Once the data is collected, the cities will apply for Safe Route to School Federal Program. The applications are reviewed and then ranked based on need.

Once you get the link, all you need to do is find your kid’s school, then click on the name and it will take you to the survey that will take about 5-10 minutes to complete. You have until the end of the year.

According to SCTPO, they are sending messages with the link via social media, rapid communication, the blackboard connect app, and through Brevard Public Schools.