For years, children in St. Johns Forest have been walking to Liberty Pines Academy alongside a highway where cars have flipped onto sidewalks, trucks have overturned, and serious crashes are routine.
Now, thanks to a new law signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, that walk will be replaced by a school bus ride starting this fall.
“This was my number one, top priority as a bill,” State Rep. Kim Kendall, who sponsored the legislation, told First Coast News. “The day bill drafting opened for us to be able to enter a bill, this was the first bill I entered.”
The newly signed HB 85 designates the sidewalk along 9B and St. Johns Parkway as a hazardous walking condition, requiring the St. Johns County School District to provide transportation—even to families living within the two-mile boundary where busing is normally not provided.
“We never envisioned when the sidewalk finished and kicked in a two-mile walk path, it would force young kids to have to be on the sidewalk with all these cars flipping over on the sidewalks in their paths,” Kendall said.
News reports have chronicled frequent wrecks, including a semi-truck flipped on 9B, cars crashing into a pedestrian bridge, and wrecks in the St. Johns Parkway median.
Kendall presented images of these incidents to lawmakers to make her case.
“There’s no guard rails, there’s no crossing guards,” she said. “Someone could just grab a child and instantly be up on the interstate.”
Superintendent Dr. Brennan Asplen confirmed the district is preparing to implement the new law. “Every year we go through that process to see what areas need busing that didn’t before, and we will be providing a bus for that particular area,” he told the outlet.
The law takes effect July 1. A St. Johns County School Board meeting to finalize transportation changes is scheduled for Tuesday.
Kendall says no other Northeast Florida districts appear to be affected by the law—for now. “I’m just one person,” she said. “I don’t do this without the help of so many parents that kept this alive.”
