Parent Handbook - Homewood School District 153

SAFETY HABITS
For the protection of your child please stress the following rules:
All children should be warned to never accept, under any circumstances, a ride from
strangers. If they are approached, children should scream, shout “NO!”, and run to the
nearest house with a Block Home sign in the window.
Students should:
• Remain on sidewalks, cross only at corners, look both ways before
crossing and never step into the street from between parked cars
• Follow the instructions of the school safety patrol and police department
crossing guards.
• Return home immediately after classes are dismissed.
• Use the shortest and safest route to and from school.
• Use safe bicycle riding habits.
Parents picking up children should park and wait only in “Attended Parking” zones. “No
Parking” or “Handicapped Parking” zones have been established by the Police Department to
ease the movement of traffic, to provide space for school buses and to create safe conditions
for children.
Please pay attention to all signs in and around school grounds, unless directed by a
police officer or their designee. Below is a list of paraphrased statutes of interest.
625 ILCS 5/12-201 Headlight usage: Headlights are to be used during the period from
sunset to sunrise, at times when rain, snow, fog, or other atmospheric conditions require the use
of windshield wipers.
625 ILCS 5/12-610.2 Electronic communication devices: An electronic device except
for GPS or navigation system or a device that is physically or electronically integrated into the
motor vehicle. “Electronic message” includes, but is not limited to electronic mail, a text
message, an instant message, or a command or request to access an Internet site. A person
may not operate a motor vehicle on a roadway while using an electronic communication device
to compose, send, or read an electronic message. Exceptions are hands free or voice activated
mode, emergency vehicles, off to the side of the road on the shoulder or reporting an
emergency.
625 ILCS 5/11-1414 Approaching, overtaking, and passing a school bus: The driver
of a vehicle shall stop such vehicle before meeting or overtaking, from either direction, any
school bus stopped at any location for the purpose of receiving or discharging pupils. The driver
of a vehicle upon a highway having 4 or more lanes which permits at least 2 lanes of traffic to
travel in opposite directions need not stop such vehicle upon meeting a school bus which is
stopped in the opposing roadway.
625 ILCS 5/11-1002.5 Pedestrians’ right-of–way at crosswalks; school zones: On a
school day when school children are present and so close thereto that a potential hazard exists
because of the close proximity of the motorized traffic and when traffic control signals are not in
place or not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall stop and yield the right-of–way to
pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is upon the half of the
roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling or so close as to be in danger.
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