Abstract
A child's ability or opportunity to walk or bicycle to school is determined by his or her parents who must weigh a number of different factors in this decision. For this study, the concerns expressed by parents were evaluated along with exploring possible technological solutions that could be used to address these concerns and to guide policy decisions. Data were collected over a six-month period utilizing an online survey sent to parents of elementary school-aged children in Idaho. The findings suggest that parents' primary concerns regarding school safety included: distance to school, the possibility of a traffic and pedestrian accident, and child abduction by strangers. Parents were most comfortable with minimally to moderately invasive technological solutions including phone calls if students did not arrive in school, established checkpoints for students to pass en route to school, live streaming videos in the classroom, and GPS tracking of their child's backpack.