'Walking School Bus' Program Plans Route Expansion In New School Year

ARLINGTON, VA — After witnessing the success of its Walking School Bus pilot program at Oakridge Elementary School in the spring, Arlington Public Schools is working to expand the intergenerational program to other county schools in the fall.

A walking school bus is an arrangement where children walk to school together. It can be as informal as two families agreeing to walk together once a week, or as formal as having volunteers on multiple routes assisting children with walking every day of the week.

What made the Oakridge Elementary School pilot program unique was how APS recruited senior citizens and retirees who live in the neighborhood to walk with elementary school children to school in the morning.

“We each would converge on the school, drop the children off at the door, and then we would text the parents to let them know their children arrived safely,” Lauren Hassel, Safe Routes to School coordinator for Arlington Public Schools, said in an interview with Patch.

As the APS employee who led the effort to get the pilot program going, Hassel joined the volunteers in walking with students to Oakridge Elementary. Each Walking School Bus route was color-coded, similar to the colors on the D.C. area's Metrorail system. Hassel's Walking School Bus route was named the Purple Line.

The pilot program kicked off in April, with five senior volunteers and six families. The children learned from the volunteers about the safety of walking, including to look both ways before crossing the street.

As the weeks went by, and families and students got to see how the Walking School Bus worked, more students started participating. By the end of the spring, 22 students who live within one mile of the elementary school were participating in the program, Hassel said.

“There was nothing but smiles from the seniors and the students,” Hassel said. “The seniors were blown away and inspired to do more of it.”

As a pilot program, the organizers decided to do the Walking School Bus only on Monday. And the volunteers would walk with the children on their way to school.

There wasn't as much of a need to walk with the students on their way home because of varying schedules due to after-school programs and activities, such as Arlington Public Schools’ extended day program, enrichment classes and sports.

The Safe Routes to School program has been active in Virginia since 2007 and helps schools and communities make walking and biking to school a safe, convenient and natural activity. The Virginia Department of Transportation has funded Arlington Public Schools’ local Safe Routes to School program since 2013.

The Walking School Bus program would have started sooner if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. Hassel said she began meeting with other county groups in 2019 to organize the program. But then by March 2020, the pandemic had arrived and nobody wanted to walk close to each other.

Last fall, APS started noticing that more parents were driving their children to school and dropping them off — even the parents who lived within a mile of a school. At elementary schools in Arlington, children who live within a mile usually do not receive bus service.

The morning "rush hour" at Oakridge Elementary and other county schools created traffic jams for both parents and people who live in the same neighborhood.

With the goal of decreasing the car drop-offs in front of the school and getting children more physical activity and socializing, Oakridge Elementary agreed to participate in the county’s Walking School Bus pilot program.

Hassel worked with the Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation 55+ program, WalkArlington and the Arlington County Commission on Aging/Positive Aging, Inclusion and Enrichment Committee to recruit volunteers.

For the Oakridge Elementary pilot program, Andrea Walker, a community member and "super-engaged volunteer," helped to recruit more senior volunteers to walk with the students to school.

Walker, 77, "is not your traditional bus driver," said a recent CBS News segment about her participation in the intergenerational walking school bus pilot at Oakridge Elementary.

"Not a major commitment, but, boy, a major impact," Walker told CBS News. "I can't tell you how my spirits are up. I can't stop smiling."

Hassel and her partners will be reaching out to community partners, PTAs, school communities and families over the summer for input on guidance and resources needed to support the formation of Walking School Buses at other schools this fall.

Volunteers who want to participate in the program are required to go through background checks by both APS and the Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation, which runs the 55+ program. None of the seniors who participated in the Oakridge Elementary pilot complained about the background checks, according to Hassel.

APS wants to promote the intergenerational Walking School Bus program model to all elementary schools in the county. In the meantime, Hassel said the goal is to add two more schools to the program this fall.

It's nice to have the summer, Hassel said, to go through a lessons-learned process from the pilot program.

"Starting the pilot program in the spring was ideal because the weather conditions were good. If we get the resources out to all schools and promote it throughout the summer, and then harness our collective intergenerational energy to target two schools in the fall, that would be ideal," she said.

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