State Safe Routes to School laws as a public health policy approach to mitigating the childhood obesity epidemic

Background: The correlation between rising obesity rates and the decline of regular physical activity, particularly in children, may be partly attributable to reductions in the number of children walking or biking to school (dropping from ~50% in 1969 to <15% in 2007) (RWJF, 2007). The decline in walking/biking to school is associated with many factors, including safety concerns, distance between residential areas and schools, and lack of adequate sidewalks near schools. To combat these trends, states began passing “safe routes to school” (SRTS) laws as early as 2001. In 2005, Congress passed a law (SAFETEA-LU) that distributed Federal funds to states for SRTS programs, which resulted in an upsurge in state SRTS laws. This presentation reviews the variance in state SRTS laws effective as of 1/1/2007.

Methods: SRTS-related statutory and administrative laws from the 50 states and D.C. were obtained from Lexis-Nexis and examined according to: adherence to Federal law language; program formality and administration; eligibility/vetting criteria; comprehensiveness; program evaluation; alternative funding; and specific engineering, enforcement, and education provisions (e.g., sidewalk maintenance/construction, enforcement of school speed zones, pedestrian education).

Results: Preliminary data indicate wide variation among state SRTS approaches—particularly in areas related to adherence to Federal language, program formality, eligibility/vetting criteria, program evaluation, and types of specific engineering, enforcement, and education provisions.

Implications: Given that states play a critical role in supporting behavior change through policies that enable and encourage healthier choices, approaches that develop/promote SRTS are a substantial step toward alleviating the nation's growing childhood obesity problem.