Walking School Bus

In West Windsor, less than 2% of children walk or bike to school (data acquired by counting the number of children walking or biking to school on beautiful sunny days, 2016). For Maurice Hawk (student population of 800), even though there are about 100 children that live within the one-half mile of the school and don't have school bus service, less than 15 students walk or bike to school. The rest are driven.

In recent years, there has been a nationwide effort to encourage children walking to school - for one reason, our children (and adults) are exercising less than half of the recommended level of 10,000 steps/day. This effort is called a Walking School Bus program, where trained captains walk a group of children to school. This program alleviates parents' pressure to chauffeur children, improves children's health, the township's congestion and pollution, and creates community bonds.

Following the successful Walking School Bus model at Hasbrouck Heights that has been going strong for 10 years and is sponsored by its police department, our police department will start the Walking School Bus at Maurice Hawk, training 4 captains. We can actively seek grants to fund this program and hope for implementation within one year.