Would you let your child walk to school down Cedarbridge Avenue, Cross Street, County Line Road, Route 88, or any other hazardous road with no sidewalks and heavy traffic?
For many parents, the answer is obvious: No.
Most of Lakewood is not safe to walk to school with no sidewalks safe shoulders and crossing busy intersections.
And that is precisely the problem. There are roads in Lakewood that are recognized as hazardous for children traveling to and from school. New Jersey itself recognizes hazardous walking routes and allows districts to provide transportation for students who would otherwise have to walk along those routes.
Yet under current New Jersey law, a student who lives within the mileage threshold is not automatically entitled to transportation simply because the route is dangerous. Districts may provide courtesy or subscription busing and may charge parents for that service.
In Lakewood, the Township pays the Board of Education for courtesy and hazardous transportation for public-school students. Private-school families, however, are required to pay out of pocket when they opt into courtesy transportation through the LSTA. With the annual fee increasing to $675, families are being asked to pay for transportation because the alternative is for children to travel along roads that have been designated hazardous.
This should not be a question of whether a family can afford the bus. A child's safety should not depend on whether his or her parents can afford the transportation fee.
A distance measured on a map does not tell us whether a child can safely walk that route. Two miles on a sidewalk is not the same thing as two miles along a road with no sidewalk, heavy traffic, high speeds, blind curves, dangerous crossings, or other hazards.
This is why the fight should not stop with the Lakewood Board of Education or the Township. This needs to be fought in Trenton.
New Jersey legislators need to hear directly from parents, school districts, municipalities, and communities dealing with these dangerous routes. The Legislature has already recognized that this is a problem. Legislation introduced in 2026, S4327, would establish statewide criteria for hazardous school routes for purposes of courtesy busing for students who are not remote.
The State should establish clear, objective criteria for hazardous school routes and provide funding so that children who are required to travel along those routes can be transported safely, regardless of whether they attend public or nonpublic school and regardless of their family's ability to pay a courtesy-busing fee.
This is not simply a Lakewood issue. It affects communities throughout New Jersey where children live within walking distance on paper but face roads that no responsible parent would consider a safe walking route.
We should be asking our state senators and assembly members: Will you support eliminating the financial burden on families whose children cannot safely walk to school? Will you meet with Lakewood parents and community leaders to hear firsthand about the roads our children are expected to navigate?
This fight belongs in Trenton.
Lakewood families should not have to choose between paying thousands of dollars a year and putting their children in a situation that the school district recognizes as unsafe.
We should not be asking parents, “Can you afford the bus?”
We should be asking the State of New Jersey, “If a route is hazardous for a child to walk, why isn't safe transportation guaranteed?”
Our children deserve better.
At a meeting January 6, 2021 to add amendments to the student transportation rules, the issue of bus safety under 2 miles was brought up but the state responded "traffic safety is not within the scope of the readoption with amendments".
In New Jersey if you are a private school student and don't qualify for mandated busing because you live less than 2 miles away you but it is not safe to walk you still have to pay for busing. NJ Law Whenever a district board of education agrees to provide nonmandated transportation to and from school for reasons of hazard, the district board of education shall adopt a
hazardous busing policy in accordance with N.J.S.A. 18A:39-1.5. regarding the transportation of students who must walk to and from school along hazardous routes. The policy shall include a list of hazardous routes in the district requiring the courtesy busing of students and the criteria used in designating the hazardous routes. On the NJ.gov website it states that "Boards of education are not required by law to provide busing for students who live less than remote from school "even for safety reasons".
"Q. Is it a district's responsibility to provide transportation for students who live less than remote from school when hazardous road conditions exist?
A. Boards of education are not required by law to provide busing for students who live less than remote from school even for safety reasons. However, boards are permitted, at their own discretion and expense, to provide transportation for students who reside less than remote from school and may charge the student's parents or legal guardians for this service. Municipalities may also contract with boards of education for this service and charge the parents. This transportation service is called Subscription Busing.
Bill S2975. Transportation for Hazardous Walking Routes Act; requires school districts to provide busing for students required to walk to school along hazardous routes
List of streets designated hazardous by Lakewood township and BOE
1. Fourteenth Street (Across Madison)
2. Pine Street
3. Forest Avenue
4. Route 70
5. New Hampshire Avenue
6. Central Avenue
7. Cedarbridge Avenue
8. Kennedy Boulevard (East & West to Teaberry)
9. Route #9 (Madison Avenue & River Avenue)
10. Ridge Avenue (Brook Road over Lanes Mills)
11. County Line Road (West to East including Lanes Mills)
12. Park Avenue (From 2nd Street to County Line Road) – Elementary School Students Only
13. Ocean Avenue/Route #88 (From Lane Mills Road to Route 9)
14. Miller Road
15. Joe Parker Road
16. Cross Street
17. Hope Chapel Road
18. Chestnut Street
19. Squankum Road
20. James Street
21. New Hampshire Avenue
22. Locust Street
23. Washington Avenue
24. Kennedy Boulevard (Between Twin Oaks)
25. Vine Street
26. Clifton Avenue
27. Oak Street
28. Hillside Street
29. Williams Street
30. Prospect Street
Why blame BOE ? Nobody is home there . Not sure if they even graduated HS. Township committee is busy giving tax abatements to all the office buildings in town. So who pays RE Taxes? A few good peole and thye now pay more than double the school transportation fee from last year. wow this is so good, the askonim really worked things out for them.
ReplyDeleteThe Ista was created as a Band-Aid knowing that the legislative fix was needed. They never lobbied for a legislative fix. They never supported litigation to fix the funding formula. They don't deserve our trust. They brought down an outrageous number to something only slightly ridiculous and are already demanding thanks!?
ReplyDelete55% of property tax goes to fund public schools. With so few(who are non tax paying) public school students in lakewood/08701 and so much tax revenue being collected may we ask exactly where the $$$ is going??? This is what our holy politicians should be making sure. That our tax dollars work for us!!!!
ReplyDeleteLive in Public housing which doesn't pay any property taxes. Get free public schooling, on top of that get the township to provide free transportation.
DeleteA very large chunk goes to an out of district special ed school.
DeleteSchnall submitted silly bills that helped the nursing home handlers who put him in power. Yet he has still done or said nothing about LSTA, despite being involved in its inception. If he can’t advocate for Lakewood residents on taxes and transportation, maybe it’s time for him to resign.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, this is what it all comes down to: The olam in Lakewood has been used and abused by a few yechidim over the years people who leveraged the power of our voting bloc to enrich themselves and take care of their own, while convincing us along the way that they had the klal’s interests at heart.
ReplyDeleteWell, that has come home to roost, and the game is up. It’s time for those in leadership, askanus, and political positions in Lakewood to take a hard look at their record and step aside if they are no longer truly representing the klal. Lakewood deserves genuine representatives who will fight for the community not for themselves.
BLAH BLAH BLAH. For years we have heard that our local govt. hasn't done a good job, to put it mildly, and should be replaced. But when it comes to elections we re-elect the same people again and again. We talk up a storm in the comments sections and letters to the editors, but it's all talk and no action. Why should the members of our govt. change their ways? We re-elect them either way.
DeleteI think they measured the distance between my house and the Yeshiva incorrectly. How do I go about rectifying this?
ReplyDeleteIt’s probably not worth it because you won’t get anywhere with it anyway
Deleteyou can start with google maps
DeleteCorrection. The board of education is not paying for public students busing. The Lakewood township is sponsoring public school student's busing. There's a very big legal distinction.
ReplyDeleteeveryone should still opt out.
ReplyDelete