Approximately 195 school crossing guards serve public and private schools throughout San Francisco, assisting children in arriving and departing safely each day. Placement and assignment of crossing guards is dependent on a number of criteria so that they are placed at intersections where they are needed the most. The addition of new crossing guards is dependent on available funding.
Crossing Guard Responsibilities
The primary responsibility of a school crossing guard is to cross students traveling to and from school, alone or accompanied by their parents, in the designated crosswalks and according to existing intersection controls.
School crossing guards are not responsible for crossing all adults. However, when there are no children crossing alone or with an adult, a school crossing guard may cross pedestrians who need assistance to cross safely. This may include pedestrians with physical limitations that prevent them from crossing the street safely on their own.
Crossing Guard Locations
To see whether there is a crossing guard at a particular intersection, please view the Map of San Francisco School Crossing Guards. Please note: due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the School Crossing Guard Program has a limited capacity in deploying crossing guards at schools. For more information, please contact CrossingGuards@sfmta.com.
School Crossing Guard Evaluations
To request an evaluation for a new school crossing guard, submit a completed Crossing Guard Request Form to CrossingGuards@sfmta.com. The school principal must sign the request. Please allow 90 days for assessment of your application.
Once a completed request for an evaluation is received, a traffic engineer or planner will conduct a traffic survey at the requested corner. Traffic surveys look at many factors, but four basic criteria must be met in order for a corner to be eligible for a crossing guard:
- The school must be K-8 grades or some subset thereof
- The corner requested must be a designated school crossing (yellow ladder crosswalks)
- 300 or more vehicles per hour travel through the intersection before the school arrival or after school dismissal
- A minimum of 10 student-pedestrians cross during a ten minute period before the school arrival or after the school dismissal
All surveyed corners are scored and ranked. When budgeted crossing guard positions are available, the highest ranked corners are filled first.
For more information, please see the Adult School Crossing Guard Request Form & Evaluation Sheet.