Parking on school premises
Principals, as managers of their school site, have responsibility for maintaining a safe environment for students, staff and visitors, including the school car park.
- OHS advice about vehicles on school premises
- On site parking
- Parents/carers parking on school premises
- Student parking
- Traffic management devices
OHS advice about vehicles on school premises
The Occupational Health and Safety Directorate has prepared advice for schools about vehicles on school gounds. This can be accessed by following the link in the above heading.
On site parking
Principals experiencing parking issues in their school car park may find the following advice provided by the Department’s Asset Management Directorate, beneficial in addressing concerns.
The Department provides, where space permits, on site parking at schools for school staff. Parking provisions may be provided for disabled persons and visitors, if space is available.
New school sites and those being upgraded have provisions made for disabled persons and visitors.
Parents/carers parking on school premises
Parents/carers should not be encouraged to drive onto the school site to pick up or drop off students due to the issues of pedestrian safety and traffic congestion, unless prior permission has been granted by the principal.
Where problems regarding use of the car park by parents/carers exist, the principal needs to consider options of management. Suggestions include:
- Displaying sign posting at car park entrances advising that only authorised persons are to drive onto the site and that by doing so, unauthorised persons are trespassing. Under the Enclosed Lands Protection Act trespassers may be arrested and prosecuted.
- Printing information in the school newsletter stating that the school car park is not available for use by parents as a pick up/drop off zone. Indiscriminate vehicular access by parents increases traffic congestion and places students at risk.
- Considering the physical aspects of the site, e.g. installing gates that are closed before and after school to restrict parents driving onto the school site. It is preferable that such gates be manually operated.
Student parking
Secondary school students are provided with free transport to school through the School Student Transport Scheme if they live over 2 km radial distance or over 2.9 km by the most practical walking route from their school. Therefore, it is not necessary for students to drive themselves to school.
Parking in school grounds is at the discretion of the principal. Before granting permission to park in school grounds the principal must be satisfied that adequate parking facilities are available and that no person is endangered.
The vehicle user parks in the school grounds at his/her own risk. The Department will not accept any liability or damage to vehicles.
Principals wishing to allow students to park in school grounds should ensure vehicle users and/or owners sign a disclaimer.
Traffic management devices
Some principals may wish to explore the use of traffic management devices to restrict access or change traffic movement practices on the site. The Regional Asset Management Unit should be contacted for advice on suitable options and approval of the project. Examples of such traffic calming devices include lockable bollards, gates, boom gates and wombat crossings.
The Regional Asset Management Unit will also assess if there is any conflict between the proposed school’s works and any proposed works by the Asset Management Directorate. An example of this conflict would be installing lockable bollards in a location where a new staff car park will be built in the future by the Asset Management Directorate.
Approval for the proposed installation must be granted by the Asset Management Directorate to ensure that the building standards and codes are complied with, and where necessary, council approval for the development has been granted.
The Asset Management Directorate has contracts for maintenance and proposed minor works by a principal must comply with the Department’s contract providers.
To contact their Regional Asset Management Unit, principals should telephone 132 779.
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