Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Air Quality

America Builds Too Many Schools By Highways

The playground at Swansea elementary school in Denver, with I-70 on the right. Image via Google Maps

One in 11 U.S. public schools are within 500 feet of a highway, exposing 4.4 million children to elevated levels of pollution, according to a new investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Attending school by a highway puts kids at elevated risk of developing asthma. In addition, there's evidence that pollutants from traffic interfere with cognitive development and may play a role in autism.

America's system of school siting is not getting better, either. In the last school year, one in five newly constructed schools were near highways, the investigation found. (The exception is California, which banned the placement of schools within 500 feet of a highway in 2003.)

The Center for Public Integrity's Jamie Smith Hopkins cited two factors that explain the pattern: School districts are attracted to cheap land by highways, and the dangers road pollution poses to children are not widely understood by parents.

Siting schools on cheap land near highways also makes them unwalkable, which compels parents to drive children to school, compounding traffic and air quality problems.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership notes that 27 states impose "acreage standards" that require minimum lot sizes for new schools, fueling the search for cheap land. (Since 2003, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Maine have all jettisoned these acreage requirements.)

The U.S. EPA recommends school districts favor sites away from major roads [PDF], as long as it does not lead to a major increase in the distance children have to travel to reach school.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Talking Headways Podcast: Localities Subsidize the State DOT

Adie Tomer of Brookings on how to improve regional coordination around infrastructure.

July 10, 2025

Five of the Ugliest Transportation Policies In the ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill

Here's a rundown of some of the transportation provisions in the Republicans' reconciliation package, and what they might mean for your community.

July 10, 2025

Viva La Thursday’s Headlines

Why is French transit ridership up 10 percent since before the pandemic, while American transit ridership is down 23 percent?

July 10, 2025

Wednesday’s Headlines Are Bigger and Beautiful-er

There's a lot of bad news in the Big Beautiful Bill — but it also may have helped kill a major highway expansion in Oregon.

July 9, 2025

Removing ‘Rainbow Crosswalks’ Won’t Make America’s Arterials Safer

Secretary Duffy wants to tackle dangerous arterials. So why is he coming after rainbow crosswalks most often seen on narrow city roads?

July 9, 2025

The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Is About Our Transportation Future, Too

Transportation didn't get a lot of mention in the public discussion of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But it's everywhere.

July 8, 2025
See all posts