School siting--resources for making your school more walkable and bicycleable

The location and design of a school have a profound effect on whether students can safely and easily walk and bicycle to school.

Most students maybe able to walk and bicycle to school that has a good, well designed site.  

But if the school site is remote the majority of students are forced to travel by bus or private automobile--adding to pollution, congestion, and expense while robbing students of needed physical activity and interaction with friends and the outdoors.

Here are some of the best resources about the issue of school siting and Safe Routes to School:

• Overview of the school siting issue and links to many good resources, from the Safe Routes to School National Partnership
   
• Helping Johnny Walk to School and Why Johnny Can't Walk to School (PDF) from the National Trust for Historic Preservation
   
• Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) - holds symposiums, issues standards, etc.  CEFPI standards have recently been updated and modernized, but many school districts still use the old, outdated standards.
  • CEFPI's summary of school acreage recommendations state by state
     
• Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) School Facility Guidelines and School Improvement Program
   
• LEED for Schools and the Green School Buildings web site - the LEED standard is newer and generally better than the older CEFPI standards
   
• Health Impact Assessment for School Siting--newly updated from the EPA
   
• Model Policies for Preserving Historic Schools (PDF) from the National Trust for Historic Preservation - historic neighborhood schools are often much friendlier for bicycling and walking than newly constructed 'modern' schools built in a new and more distant location
   
• Healthy Neighborhood Schools Checklist by Brian Fellows