For parents in the Greater Washington area and anywhere else
The way to school, worked out street by street.
A child's first regular walk to school is a small piece of independence with real traffic in it. These notes are about the practical part: which streets, which crossings, which rules, and how to rehearse it so the first solo morning is boring.
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Plan and test a walking route
How to pick streets and crossings, walk the route at school time, and write down the version your child will actually use.
Read the guide -
Crossing the street, by age
What a six-year-old can judge and a ten-year-old cannot yet, and the crossings to avoid entirely.
Read the guide -
Start a walking school bus
Three families, one route, a rota. How the informal version works and what to agree before the first morning.
Read the guide -
Bikes and scooters
Helmet fit, lights, locks, which route is right for wheels, and the rules children get wrong most.
Read the guide
What this site is, and is not
School Route Notes is published by the team behind Geopapa, a family locator app for parents. We say so on every page because it is a commercial interest: where an app genuinely helps with the walk to school we name ours, and where it does not, we say that too. Most of what is here needs no app.
This is not the Safe Routes to School program, not a school district and not a government site, although the domain used to belong to the program's regional network until 2025. The history of the domain and who runs it now is on its own page.
The advice here is deliberately general. Traffic law, school arrival rules and crossing-guard coverage differ between the District, Maryland and Virginia, and between individual schools. Where a local rule matters, the guides say so and tell you whom to ask.