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The ELY Centre does not give statements on the safety of the way to school or give comments on dangers along the way to school.
There is a separate service (Koululiitu) available for assessing the safety of travelling to the school by foot or bicycle. The safety assessment is based on information from the general road register, such as traffic volume, road shoulder width, speed limits and visibility.
The Koululiitu service calculates a risk index for individual sections of road, based on the characteristics of the road and traffic, and this index can be used for determining whether school transportation is needed. The method is only based on road and traffic characteristics, not on the schoolchildren’s ability to survive the traffic or the perceived dangers along the way due to wild animals, for example. The method calculates a risk index on the basis of the road and traffic data to indicate the level of risk at the section of road. The index calculation method enables determining an order for road sections on the basis of risks. This ensures the equal treatment of schoolchildren living in different areas in the granting of school transportation.
One of the reasons for offering the Koululiitu service to municipalities is that the road management authority does not have enough resources for making these assessments.
Each municipality is required and entitled to define its own school transportation policies, following applicable legislation. Under Finnish education legislation, municipalities must arrange transportation to primary school pupils who live more than five kilometres from the school. Municipalities may also arrange school transportation for shorter distances at their own discretion if the way to school is considered to be dangerous, difficult or exhausting in view of the child’s age. The municipality evaluates this.
The ELY Centre does not give statements on the safety of ways to school or provide register data related to ways to school that are available from the Koululiitu service for municipalities.
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