Active Living Research

Background and Purpose
Mississippi recently passed shared use legislation that clarifies school liability exposure and promotes community recreational use of public school property. The purpose of this legislation was to promote additional opportunities for physical activity in a state battling a high rate of obesity. This legislation incorporated much of the language from American Heart Association (AHA) and the Center Policy Guidance and was informed by research conducted by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Active Living Research grantees. Research findings from ALR funded projects were used in the Findings section of the AHA Policy Guidance that informed and shaped the Mississippi legislation. Findings are brief statements of fact that outline the issue being addressed and support the need for the policy. in the AHA Policy Guidance, the rationale to promote community use of school sport/recreation facilities is based on, and referenced to, relevant research on the issues. Research findings on access to recreational resources, the individual and social benefits of physical activity, the community use of school recreational facilities, and other active living issues were included in the policy guidance. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the process where ALR funded research informed AHA Policy Guidance, which in turn shaped Mississippi “shared use” legislation designed to provide additional opportunities for physical activity within the state.

Objectives
Initial interest for the Mississippi “shared use” bill came out of the state collaboration meeting at the Southern Obesity Summit in October 2011.  Both Representative Toby Barker and Chip Johnson, mayor of Hernando, MS took a noted interest when the issue of shared use was raised.  Rep. Barker eventually became the bill sponsor. The issue of joint/shared use was also written into the Healthy Foods Advisory Council report submitted to the Mississippi State Legislature in 2011 as a way to promote school gardens.

Methods
As Mississippi continues to struggle with the obesity epidemic, research findings derived from the AHA Policy Guidance document supported existing health concerns. Opposition to the bill was minimal. Findings relevant to cost savings to both local governments and schools were most compelling. No post-evaluations have been conducted because the law went into effect July 1, 2012.  However, a survey was conducted before the issue was rolled out to help understand the current joint/shared use environment in Mississippi.

Results
The Mississippi Legislature declared that the intent of the act was “to make school property available to community members during non-school hours for recreational activities in order to support active living, reduce obesity, reduce health care costs associated with obesity, increase community safety, maximize community resources, and promote community support for schools.” The legislative intent is based on the Findings made available in the Policy Guidance document, informed by ALR funded research. Issues relevant to the legislative intent were also informed and guided by ALR research studies. Implications for effective integration of research and policy:a. for the researcher: (1) designing studies that address a timely and relevant policy issue, (2) reporting study results in policy relevant and understandable language, (3) forming collaborations with connected individuals and organizations that can disseminate your research, (4) ensuring that the meaning of your research findings is not lost in translation, (5) developing relationships with advocates to inform their efforts in promoting policy change, and (6) maintaining relationships with key collaborators throughout the process.b. for the legal technical assistance provider: (1) determining the range of policy options available, (2) working with stakeholders to find evidence-based policy options that fit to the communities political and legal context, (3) researching existing laws, resolutions, mandates, regulations and rules, to inform about the existing legal landscape; (4) reaching out to key collaborators, (5) sharing lessons learned from work in other jurisdictions, and (6) developing resources including fact sheets, toolkits and training modules to communicate complicated legal issues to a non-legal audience.c. for the AHA Government Relations Director: (1) working on the ground to determine, educate, and promote bill sponsors and supporters (2) identifying, recruiting, and maintaining key partnerships (3) identifying opposition, if necessary and determining strategies and tactics, (4) monitoring and guiding the bill through the legislative process (5) activating the grassroots/Grasstops network, when necessary, to influence and promote the issue, and (6) activating media advocacy and determining appropriate messaging.

Conclusions
The next step is to evaluate both the impact of legislation and educational efforts about the legislation on shared use implementation and physical activity. Evaluation would include measuring outcomes through facility audits, measuring physical activity through direct observation measures such as SOPLAY and SOPARC, and evaluating shared use policies, shared/joint use contracts and program types.

Support / Funding Source
Research identified in this presentation was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Active Living Research Program. Technical Legal Assistance was funded by the American Heart Association.

Background and Purpose
Partnerships between schools and other community organizations that include shared use of recreation facilities can increase access to physical activity opportunities and represent a promising childhood obesity prevention strategy (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2006). Even the most underserved neighborhoods may have schools and other facilities that are under used for recreation (Spengler, Connaughton, & Maddock, 2011). Meanwhile, local agencies or community groups seeking to use public school buildings and grounds for community based programs often find it difficult to access these spaces during out of school hours (Filardo et al., 2010). Often cited barriers to shared use of school facilities include: legal, maintenance, operations, security, and scheduling challenges (Spengler et al., 2011). Although liability associated with shared use of schools is the most common barrier, perceived cost of additional facility use has emerged as an equally important reason for restricting access (Spengler, 2012).

Objectives
Physical activity opportunities associated with shared use of facilities weighed against their associated costs have yet to be determined.  The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of shared use of school physical activity facilities during non-school hours on the amount and type of physical activity programs offered at schools and the cost of operating school facilities.

Methods
All public middle schools (N=30) in a southeastern United States school district were selected for the study. Middle schools were chosen because studies show that participation in youth sport and physical activity declines significantly during this period and middle school facilities are more conducive than elementary schools to shared use. Afterschool physical activity programs were assessed using the Structured Physical Activity Survey (SPAS) (Powers et al., 2002).  SPAS identifies the frequency, duration, and type of structured afterschool physical activity programs offered at a school and the number of male and female participants in each program. Facility operating costs for each school were derived from financial data provided by the school district. Data were collected at four two-week periods over 12 months from 2009-2010 to capture seasonal changes in program offerings. The shared use of school physical activity facilities was categorized by the amount or level of community use (i.e., number of afterschool physical activity programs operated by community organizations on school facilities and the number of participants), ranging from  low (1) to high (3) shared use.

Results
Afterschool physical activity programs at school facilities included a mean of 1.42 programs (SD = .25) with 32.5 participants (SD = 12.3) administered by schools and .35 programs (SD = .26) with 17.2 participants (SD = 20.9) administered by community (non-school) agencies.  The mean annual operating cost for each sampled school was $1.14 per square foot of building space (SD = $.44) or $192 per enrolled student (SD = $87). Minutes of afterschool program physical activity was positively correlated with level of shared use. Kruskal-Wallis tests with post hoc Mann-Whitney U comparisons indicated that minutes in physical activity were significantly and positively associated with shared use policy for the overall student population, H(3) = 17.64, p < .001, for girls, H(3) = 18.02, p < .001, and for boys, H(3) = 10.71, p = .005. A more consistent positive association was observed between shared use categories and increased participation in girls’ programs than in boys’ programs. Kendall’s t (non-parametric) correlations indicated no significant relationship between shared use of school facilities for community-sponsored physical activity programs and school operating costs per square foot (t = 0.105, p = .436) and school operating costs per enrolled student (t = -0.157,

Conclusions
Consistent with previous research, an increase in shared use of school facilities was associated with increased afterschool physical activity programs operated on school facilities (Durant et al., 2009; Farley et al., 2008) and increases in the number of children participating in physical activity programs. However, despite operating more programs and having more children use school facilities after hours, schools did not incur additional facility operating costs.School administrators often express concern about incurring additional operating and maintenance costs associated with more facility use by non-school sponsored programs (Spengler et al., 2011). Our results, however, suggest many of the perceived cost increases are unrealized. It appears schools are not organized or operated to be sensitive to the amount or intensity of facility use. Heat and air conditioning are set at a constant level, athletic fields are maintained, and custodial labor is incurred throughout the year regardless of whether the school opens its facilities for afterschool shared use or prohibits afterschool use.Results represent new knowledge about the potential of shared use of school facilities as an environmental and policy intervention to increase community based physical activity.  Partnerships between schools and other community agencies to share facilities and create new or expanded opportunities for afterschool physical activity programs are a promising health promotion strategy.

Support / Funding Source
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Active Living Research Grant - Round 9

Background and Purpose
In the United States, 18.1% of adolescents are obese and 34.2% are overweight or obese.  Obesity in adolescence is the single best predictor of adult obesity. The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 (CNRA) is the most comprehensive national strategy to address youth obesity prevention in schools. The CNRA requires school districts to develop written wellness polices that address goals for physical activity, nutrition education, foods sold at school and other school based wellness activities. This legislation provides a unique opportunity to determine whether alterations are implemented in the high school environment as a result of district policy guidelines and if they are associated with the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents. Evaluation of past policy efforts can inform future local, state and federal youth obesity prevention initiatives.

Objectives
The objective of this study was to assess the association of school wellness practices with adolescent overweight and obesity while controlling for individual, family and school characteristics.  It was hypothesized that adolescents living within the boundaries of high schools reporting nutrition and physical activity practices would have a lower relative risk of overweight and obesity.  It was further hypothesized that high school practices would be associated with school district wellness policy content.

Methods
School nutrition and physical activity practices were obtained from the 2004, 2006 and 2008 School Health Profiles surveys. Profiles is a biennial survey administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Adolescent and family attributes were obtained from the Utah Population Database (UPDB), a compilation of genealogic and administrative records of Utah residents including driver’s licenses and birth certificates.  School characteristics were accessed via the Common Core of Data (CCD). The CCD is an annual compilation of demographic data from each school in the United States collected by the Department of Education.  School district wellness policies were obtained in 2006 and 2008 and evaluated for compliance with the CNRA. Further, when there was policy language addressing a requirement, the content was characterized as either “mandated” or “recommended.” Each adolescent was linked to their high school based on the address listed on their driver’s license.  School boundary maps were used to create a geo-referenced data layer using ArcGIS© (version 9.3).  The addresses were geo-coded and spatially joined to the school boundary data to identify the individual’s high school. Each geo-coded student was then linked to the results of the Profiles survey based on school and the year they received their driver’s licenses. Students whose school did not participate in Profiles for the time period they received their driver’s license were not included, resulting in a final sample of 51,162 Utah adolescents. Bivariate and multinomial analyses were performed to model the relationship of school practices among normal weight, overweight and obese adolescents while controlling for individual, family and school characteristics.

Results
Of the 42 high school practices examined, only exempting students from PE was associated with the risk of obesity (RRa=0.76, 95% CI: 1.16-1.74, p<0.02).  Individual, family and school attributes were significantly associated with high BMI.  Maternal obesity tripled the risk adolescent overweight (RRa=3.08, 95% CI: 2.54-3.76, p<0.001) and resulted in a six-fold risk of obesity (RRa=6.06, 95% CI: 4.988-7.52, p<0.001).  American Indian adolescents had twice the risk of obesity (RRa= 2.09, 95% CI:  0.91-4.80, p <0.01) and Black adolescents had almost four times the risk of overweight when compared to White adolescents (RRa=3.80, 95% CI: 1.37-10.48, p<0.01).  When the population of a high school was <70% -White, the risk of adolescent obesity was greater than in a less diverse school (RRa=1.43, 95% CI:  1.16-1.74, p<0.01).  School practices were not related to their district having a mandatory policy related to that practice.

Conclusions
Overall, the implementation of physical activity and nutrition practices in high schools was not associated with adolescent overweight or obesity in Utah.  Research is needed to develop tools that further quantify wellness policy efforts, especially as new federal guidelines are implemented as a result of the Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act. This study suggests that the CNRA wellness policy mandate did not translate to increased emphasis on physical activity or nutrition in high schools. Future policy efforts ought to focus on successful implementation strategies for the complex high school environment.  Finally, this study confirms that school wellness policy efforts should incorporate family involvement and prioritize racial and ethnic minority youth at the highest risk of overweight and obesity.

Support / Funding Source
University of Utah College of Health

Background and Purpose
Building on interventions promoting active physical education (PE) and other strategies, school districts and states have initiated policies and programs to improve physical activity levels.  in March 2010, the Boston Public Health Commission received Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) funding.  in one initiative, the Boston Public Schools (BPS) implemented policies promoting an “Active School Day,” including increasing the quantity and quality of PE provided for students and integrating more moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) throughout the school day. This study evaluates the potential effectiveness of these policy change strategies in six BPS schools.

Objectives
1) Collect accelerometer data from a student sample before and after “Active School Day” policy implementation in 3 intervention and 3 control schools; 2) Evaluate policy implementation within schools using a quasi-experimental design. Here we report preliminary estimates of changes in physical activity levels before and after implementation.

Methods
This quasi-experimental non-randomized matched control study compares changes in physical activity levels pre- and post-intervention among a diverse urban sample of fourth and fifth grade students using accelerometer and observational data. We collected accelerometer data among 480 students in 26 classrooms at 6 schools at baseline (March 2011) and follow up (June 2011).  The main outcome is accelerometer minutes of MVPA during the school day.  Teachers completed weekly logs recording types and timing of physical activity opportunities provided to students.  Accounting for clustering at the student and school levels, we calculated linear regressions to estimate changes in mean minutes of accelerometer MVPA levels among intervention and control students from baseline to follow up.  We also employed within-person fixed effects regression methods to estimate the impacts of PE and recess minutes on MVPA levels, and how these changed with intervention.

Results
We collected valid accelerometer data from 393 fourth and fifth grade students at both baseline and follow up (82% response rate).  Fifty-two percent of students were female, 53% in grade 5, and the majority were of black (59%) or Hispanic/Latino (31%) race/ethnicity.  Students provided on average 4.3 (SD 0.8) valid days at baseline and 4.0 (SD 1.0) days at follow up, for a total of 3,291 monitored person-days.  We collected 20 weekly physical activity logs from classroom teachers at baseline and 25 at follow up.  At baseline, teachers reported an average of 48 minutes per week of PE (42 intervention, 56 control) and 52 minutes per week of recess (65 intervention, 35 control) provided to students.  At follow up, reported weekly minutes of PE were similar (49 overall; 41 intervention, 58 control), while weekly recess minutes increased to 95 (104 intervention, 86 control).  Classroom movement breaks and other types of physical activity were also offered, though less frequently.  Overall, student activity levels during the school day increased overall from 18.4 (SD 9.6) minutes/day MVPA at baseline to 23.9 (SD 15.8) minutes/day MVPA at follow up.  Compared to students in control schools, students in intervention schools participated in fewer minutes/day MVPA at both baseline (17.4 intervention vs. 19.4 control) and follow up (23.4 intervention vs. 24.4 control).  Adjusting for monitored time, sex, grade, meter type worn, matched pairs, temperature and precipitation, results indicate that students in intervention schools increased MVPA levels from baseline to follow up by 4.2 minutes more than their control peers.  More detailed within-person fixed effects (repeated measures) analysis indicated that each minute of PE provided was associated with increases in MVPA (p<0.0001) for both intervention and control sites. At follow-up, but not at baseline, minutes of recess periods offered were associated with substantial increases in overall minutes/day MVPA in intervention sites compared to baseline (P<0.0001).

Conclusions
During school hours, fourth and fifth grade students in Boston engaged in higher MVPA levels in June compared to March.  Students attending schools that implemented initiatives to increase and improve PE and other physical activity opportunities during the school day showed higher increases in MVPA levels from March baseline to June follow up.  Providing PE was associated with higher MVPA levels, resulting in approximately 11 additional minutes of MVPA with provision of a 48-minute PE class, or 14 minutes MVPA for a 60-minute PE class. Physical activity levels associated with recess time, low at baseline due in part to high prevalence of indoor recess periods, increased among intervention schools following the implementation of active recess initiatives.  School-based physical activity promotion initiatives implemented at the district level may have the ability to increase student physical activity levels.

Support / Funding Source
Supported by Active Living Research (grant #68591).

Background and Purpose
It is commonly acknowledged that children today are traveling less often by active modes and less often without adult supervision. Potential negative effects of these joint trends may include, for children, a decrease in physical activity level and loss of developmental benefits from independently navigating their neighborhood environment, and, for society as a whole, an increase in vehicle miles traveled and associated negative externalities.This research models the propensity of children aged 6-16 to walk or bike to parks and school without an adult chaperone. A rich set of potential correlates was available from linked household, parent, and child surveys.This analysis extends existing work on children’s active travel in several ways: 1) focus on travel without an adult, 2) inclusion of school and a non-school destinations, 3) separate walk and bike models, 4) consideration of both parent and child attitudes and perceived social norms, 5) explicit inclusion of household rules limiting walking or bicycling.

Objectives
This research seeks to understand the relative contributions of various child, parent, household, and neighborhood level factors to children’s independent active travel to the park and to school. Specific barriers and incentives are considered that may be effective policy levers to increase independent active travel, while controlling for socio-demographic characteristics of respondents.

Methods
Data are drawn from the initial phase of the Family Activity Study, a three-year longitudinal intervention study in Portland, Oregon that began in 2010. This analysis uses survey questionnaires taken by 281 households, including 428 children aged 6-16 and 416 adults. Binomial logit  models are specified for two parent-reported independent travel behaviors by children: walk and bike to parks at least once per month and walk and bike to school at least once per month. Models are estimated separately for biking and walking. Attributes include proximity, household socio-demographics, rules, norms, attitudes, built environment, children’s related travel behavior and adults’ past behavior, and residential location choice factors.  Special consideration is given to household rule effects and their predictors as well as differences between walk/bike and school/non-school choice situations.

Results
Increasing distance strongly discouraged independent walk and bike travel to the park and to school. Age was also strongly negatively correlated with all types of independent travel. Female children were less likely to travel to parks without an adult, but no gender bias was evident for school travel. Active travel to school increased the chances of biking and walking to the park. Older siblings had a strong positive effect for three of the four mode/destination combinations. Children in single parent households were less likely to walk independently, and children from higher income households were less likely to travel to school independently by either mode. Restrictive household rules had larger impacts on non-school than on school travel. Other kids' behavior and 11-16 year olds’ attitudes toward helmets were found to have relatively small but significant correlations with biking behavior.  Younger children’s safety perceptions and parents’ childhood active travel to school likewise had relatively small but significant correlations with independent walking. A number of land-use and built environment measures were tested but found to be insignificant predictors after controlling for other attributes.in terms of household rules, a single parent or stranger danger concern increased the odds of having a stay in sight rule. Younger children and girls were also more likely to face the stay at home rule. Parents that trusted neighbors and chose the location due in part to good walking conditions were less likely to have the rule. Traffic concerns increased the probability of a rule against biking in the street, as did mixed land uses. Households that selected a neighborhood for its good biking conditions for kids and parents who were confident bicyclists themselves decreased the odds that kids were banned from biking in the street.

Conclusions
Proximity, household socio-demographics, rules, norms, attitudes, children’s related travel behavior and adults’ past experience were significantly correlated with children’s independent active travel.  As measured, land-use and built environment factors were not significant predictors. Taken together, the results underscore the importance of treating walk and bike travel separately, studying non-school trips, understanding household rule formation, and incorporating variables at child, adult, household, and neighborhood level.

Support / Funding Source
The Family Activity Study and this paper were funded by the Active Living Research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.February 2010 - January 2013.

Background and Purpose
Active travel to school has been widely promoted as a means to reverse the obesity epidemic. Abundant evidence indicates built environments influence parental decisions on children’s school commuting mode. There has been a growing interest in using portable instruments such as Global Positioning System (GPS) units and accelerometers for capturing more objective and detailed information about the spatial and temporal patterns of physical activity and school commuting behaviors than what can be captured from self-reports especially from children. However, due to the complexity in processing and analyzing the data from these units, empirical studies are still limited.

Objectives
By using both the GPS and accelerometer units, the purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of children’s home-to-school and school-to-home travels, in terms of demographic, physical activity, and route characteristics. This study assessed the contribution of active travel modes to the overall daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and variations in school trip characteristics by community settings.

Methods
A total of 113 children from 18 elementary schools in the Austin Independent School District in Texas were recruited between fall of 2009 and spring of 2011. Children wore both the GPS watch (Garmin Forerunner) and the accelerometer unit (ActiGraph GT3X) for seven consecutive days and recorded daily travel logs, with  parental assistance. Parents completed a survey including school travel, demographic, physical activity, and environmental perception data. From the time-synthesized GPS and accelerometer data, home-school trips were extracted and validated by comparing with the travel log data. All validated trips were then mapped, analyzed, and summarized in Geographic Information System (GIS) software. Minutes of daily MVPA and total accumulated MVPA from active travels were calculated from the accelerometer data. Statistical analyses involved chi-square, t-test, and ANOVA.

Results
Demographic Characteristics: The average age was 9.5 years; 50.8% were girls; and 58.3% were of Hispanic origin. Half of the children qualified for the free or reduced price lunch program indicating a lower economic status. Active travel modes were more popular among boys (37% vs. 31%) and Whites (40% vs. 29%), compared with girls and Hispanics.  Route/Trip Characteristics: A total of 438 trips from 305 person-days were extracted. Automobiles (private car and school bus) accounted for 61.4% of the total trips, while walking and bicycling accounted for 34.9% and 3.7% respectively. Average trip lengths for driving, walking and bicycling were 2.5, 0.43, and 0.66 miles. Home-to-school trips were more direct and faster (1.38 miles and 7.4 minutes) while school-to-home trips involve more intermediate stops (72% involving at least one stop) and are longer (2.04 miles and 12.1). Common stopping points included a friends' house, shopping center, grocery store, convenience store, and fast food restaurants. in terms of the route directness (airline distance divided by actual traveled distance between homes and schools), walking trips were more direct than driving trips (0.74 vs. 0.66), and home-to-school trips were more direct than school-to home trips (0.73 vs. 0.64).The 18 study schools were classified into four community settings based on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the neighborhood and travel characteristics varied across the settings. Participants from 'low income, inner-city community' had a lower share of active travel modes (11%) and longer trips on average (2.36 miles). The 'urban middle income’ setting included 38% of active trips, were the shortest (1.15 miles), and most direct (0.73). The 'suburban high income’ setting also had a high share of active modes (35%), despite the longest trip length and duration (2.52 miles and 12.3 minutes). Physical Activity Characteristics: Average daily MVPA was 34.6 minutes, and walkers had 10 more minutes than non-walkers (39.1 vs. 28.7). The average contribution of school travels toward the total daily MVPA was 33.5%, and it was higher among more sedentary children. for example, students with 10 minutes of total daily MVPA had seven minutes (70%) from school travels, while students with one hour of daily MVPA had nine minutes (15%) from school travels.

Conclusions
Objective and detailed data from GPS and accelerometer units appear useful in providing information about route/trip characteristics and physical activity implications related to school transportation. Results from these data can guide the future development of policy and environmental interventions, by helping to determine: (a) walkable distances by different settings and student groups, (b) types of attractive destinations (land uses) near school to promote active and efficient trip-chaining behaviors, (c) the contribution of school travel to the overall daily MVPA for assessing health benefits of active school travels, and (d) specific and modifiable built environmental characteristics of the home-school routes that support walking and bicycling. Findings from this exploratory study also suggested that active travel to school is a valuable means to promote physical activity, especially among the sedentary children.

Support / Funding Source
This study was funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Active Living Research program (Grant ID: 65539).

Background and Purpose
Safe Route to School (SRTS) programs are designed to enable more children to safely walk, bicycle or use other modes of active travel to school (ATS). Children that use ATS receive more physical activity than those who do not and may contribute to reduced congestion and improved air quality around their schools. to help realize these benefits, the 2005 federal transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU, established a SRTS program in each state. State SRTS programs provide grants to projects in school-based communities that directly support walking and bicycling through engineering, education, encouragement, and/or enforcement activities. The program has been widely popular. Across all states, SRTS grant applicants have requested about 2.5 times the amount of SRTS funding available. Despite high demand for this short-lived program, dedicated federal funding for the SRTS program has been eliminated with the passage of the 2012 federal transportation bill, MAP-21. However, assessments of the seven-year federal program are just now being made, which should help Congress re-evaluate the value of the program for the installment of the next federal bill. These assessments should also benefit State policymakers who must now determine if the SRTS program is worth the investment of scarce pedestrian and bicycle transportation funds. in those states that do continue their program, SRTS Coordinators will need to know how to choose the SRTS project applications with the greatest potential for success.

Description
This study is one of the results of a five-year collaborative effort on the part of six state SRTS coordinators (from AL, FL, MS, TX, WI, and WA). Its aims are to (1) quantify the impact of the state SRTS programs, (2) assess changes in rates of ATS after the implementation of a SRTS project, and (3) identify characteristics of SRTS projects that were associated with greater increases in rates of ATS.

Lessons Learned
Using information provided by state SRTS coordinators and obtained from publicly accessible databases, including those maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics, this study developed a database of all SRTS projects, schools, and school neighborhood characteristics in five of the six study states. Descriptive statistics were used to quantify the impact of the programs in the five states. Projects were assessed on rates of change in ATS, which were calculated and tested for statistical significance using paired samples t-tests. to identify characteristics of more successful SRTS projects, bivariate analysis was used to identify SRTS project, school, and school neighborhood characteristics associated with greater increases in rates of ATS.

Conclusions and Implications
in the five states, almost $157 million had been awarded to 569 SRTS projects that affected more than 1,410 schools with an estimated enrollment of 781,180 children – roughly 10% of the PK-8 grade public elementary school population in the five states. Due in part to the lack of federal requirements for data collection and to the length of time it takes for projects to come to completion, changes in rates of ATS were only available for 48 projects in four of the study states. These projects tended to be focused on fewer schools and smaller student populations and included a more comprehensive range of interventions; all featured an engineering intervention. Among these completed projects walking increased by 45% (from 9.8% to 14.2%), bicycling increased by 24% (from 2.5% to 3.0%), and all ATS increased by 37% (from 12.9% to 17.6%). Increases were statistically significant.SRTS projects that affected fewer schools and students, and those with encouragement and education components tended to have greater increases in rates of ATS. These relationships, however, were not statistically significant. No relationships were found between school and school neighborhood measures of socio-economic status and project performance. The single statistically significant relationship found was a negative correlation between baseline rates of bicycling to school and increases in rates of bicycling to school, suggesting that SRTS projects may be effective at introducing bicycling as a viable mode of travel to school where few children already do so.

Next Steps
This study offers preliminary evidence that state SRTS programs are achieving one of their primary goals of increasing rates of walking and bicycling to school and that federal SRTS funds are delivering an immediate return on investment. Encouragement and education interventions paired with pedestrian infrastructure improvements appear to be a particularly effective way of immediately increasing ATS. SRTS projects may also be a particularly effective means of introducing bicycling to communities where it is rare. The research framework established here can be used by researchers and SRTS coordinators alike to continue to track the effect of state SRTS programs as more projects are completed and more data become available.

Support / Funding Source
This research was conducted as part of a Transportation Pooled Fund study sponsored by the Washington State DOT. Other contributing state DOTs include Alaska, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, and Wisconsin.