When we moved to our little piece of nirvana here in AZ it was the ONE thing our son was looking forward to. School is just less than a mile from the house and he only has one major crosswalk to go through. There is a guard there, so I let him ride. He loves it. Though nervous nelly me still gave him an extra cell phone to keep in his back pack in case he has an emergency. He's only 8 and I can't tell you how conflicted I was giving him a phone! But that way he can take his time riding home w/ his friends and I don't worry if he's late. When we lived in Northern CA I would have never felt safe letting him ride- and the school was only two blocks away!! In fact I found out that a little girl was molested walking to school on our old block about a year after we moved away. SAD!