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Parents call for faster school-safety fixes: more crossing guards, emergency request path and expanded DC School Connect
Summary
Parents and parent leaders with PAVE told the committee that students need quicker DDOT responses for school safety — more crossing guards, an emergency pathway for urgent infrastructure fixes and expansion of DC School Connect micro-transit.
Parents and parent leaders from the citywide organization PAVE (Parents Amplifying Voices in Education) testified that school-safety infrastructure and student transportation require faster, more coordinated action from DDOT and partner agencies.
Maya Martin Cadogan, PAVE's founder and executive director, thanked DDOT staff who have engaged with PAVE but urged an emergency request process for schools to make urgent changes to drop‑off and pick‑up arrangements, crosswalks or crossing‑guard coverage. "Given the potentially life or death stakes of this work for children, we think a specific process for emergency requests for schools is necessary," she said.
Witnesses asked DDOT to refill vacant crossing‑guard posts immediately and to standardize hiring, training and retention. Cadogan said the department had identified 220 funded crossing‑guard locations and 29 positions still awaiting hires; parents asked faster recruitment and clearer communication to impacted schools.
Parents described on‑the‑ground problems: Tysha Andrews (Ward 8) said unreliable Metro and school-bus service force families to use long public-transit trips or drive children to school. Anna Rodriguez (McKinley Tech PTO) urged consistent training and professionalization for crossing guards; "Crossing guards play a valuable role in safe passage, especially at schools with very busy streets," Rodriguez said.
Paid parent leaders asked DDOT and WMATA to expand DC School Connect-style options and to study school-express routes and micro‑transit from Metro stations to school entrances as alternatives for students traveling across wards.
Ending: The committee said it would bring these parent priorities — crossing‑guard fill rates, an emergency response pathway for school safety requests, and micro‑transit pilots — to the DDOT and WMATA oversight hearings for specific agency commitments.
