Protect Our Students Act

This legislation, known as the "Protect Our Students Act," seeks to significantly improve safety for students in school zones by amending federal highway safety programs. It explicitly makes reducing injuries and deaths from traffic incidents in school zones an eligible programming area for State highway safety initiatives under Title 23 of the U.S. Code. The bill mandates that the Secretary of Transportation issue regulations to clarify a broad range of eligible uses for these safety funds. These uses include critical measures such as crossing guards , flashing lights, visible signage, crosswalks, traffic calming, traffic lights, school zone audits, automated traffic enforcement, and Safe Routes to School non-infrastructure projects. Furthermore, to bolster these efforts, the bill increases the allocation for certain highway safety programs from 40 percent to 50 percent . These provisions aim to provide additional federal funding and focused attention on prevalent school zone safety issues, ultimately working to ensure that students do not fear for their lives when traveling to or from school.