The SFMTA currently has 155 crossing guards on duty, serving 91 public and private schools across San Francisco. Collectively, they provide approximately 400 hours of coverage each day, helping students, families, and school staff safely navigate intersections near schools. Their presence plays a vital role in promoting safe travel for children and supporting community well-being. We remain focused on allocating resources where they are most needed and are actively working to increase staffing to match the staffing level of the 2024–2025 school year.
Crossing Guard Responsibilities
The primary responsibility of a school crossing guard is to cross students traveling to and from school, alone or accompanied by their parents, in the designated crosswalks and according to existing intersection controls.
School crossing guards are not responsible for crossing all adults. However, when there are no children crossing alone or with an adult, a school crossing guard may cross pedestrians who need assistance to cross safely. This may include pedestrians with physical limitations that prevent them from crossing the street safely on their own.
Crossing Guard Locations
To see whether there is a crossing guard at a particular intersection, please view the Map of San Francisco School Crossing Guards. Please note: due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the School Crossing Guard Program has a limited capacity in deploying crossing guards at schools. For more information, please contact CrossingGuards@sfmta.com.
School Crossing Guard Evaluations
To request an evaluation for a new school crossing guard, submit a completed Crossing Guard Request Form to CrossingGuards@sfmta.com. The school principal must sign the request. Please allow 90 days for assessment of your application. The addition of new crossing guards is dependent on available funding.
Once a completed request for an evaluation is received, a traffic engineer or planner will conduct a traffic survey at the requested corner. Traffic surveys look at many factors, but four basic criteria must be met in order for a corner to be eligible for a crossing guard:
- The school must be K-8 grades or some subset thereof
- The corner requested must be a designated school crossing (yellow ladder crosswalks)
- 300 or more vehicles per hour travel through the intersection before the school arrival or after school dismissal
- A minimum of 10 student-pedestrians cross during a ten minute period before the school arrival or after the school dismissal
All surveyed corners are scored and ranked. When budgeted crossing guard positions are available, the highest ranked corners are filled first.
For more information, please see the Adult School Crossing Guard Request Form & Evaluation Sheet.