While the Colorado Department of Transportation decides which Safe Routes to School programs will be funded during the school year starting this fall, here at Bicycle Colorado we are already thinking about funding for the 2016-17 school year.

Safe Routes to School, a program that teaches kids how to ride a bike and encourages them walk or ride to school has reached kids in more than 1,500 schools nationwide since its inception in 2005. And Bicycle Colorado’s Safe Routes to School programming has reached more than 70,000 children in Colorado in that time.

Federal funding for the program runs out at the end of this school year, but we worked with a broad coalition of groups to support a bill, signed into law last summer, that will fund the program for the 2015-16 school year.

Despite the great success of the program—95% of schools in the program report an increase in the number of children biking and walking—funding is not secure beyond the 2015-16 school year.

HB 15-1003, a bill to continue funding the Safe Routes to School Program

On January 7, Reps. Max Tyler and Diane Mitsch Bush introduced a bill to fund the the Colorado Safe Routes to School program for the 2016-17 school year and beyond.

They were joined by four bipartisan cosponsors in the House and two in the Senate, led by Sen. Nancy Todd. (List of sponsors is on the right.)

House Bill 15-1003 will direct $3 million to keep the Safe Routes to School Program alive.

A broad coalition of groups is endorsing this bill along with Bicycle Colorado, including LiveWell Colorado, the American Heart Association, Children’s Hospital Colorado, Healthier Colorado, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, the American Public Health Association, the Colorado Children’s Campaign and Colorado Counties, Inc.

Learn more and take action:

• Sign up for eNews to get action alerts.
• Read a summary of HB 15-1003.
• Follow the bill’s progress through the Colorado Legislature.