Once your school has discussed the options with your road controlling authority and New Zealand Police and decided to establish a school traffic safety team, the responsibilities of the partners are as follows.
2.1 The road controlling authority's role
- Works with principal and school community officer to set up school traffic safety team.
- Authorises and establishes pedestrian crossings and school crossing points.
- Provides, installs and maintains school patrol signs, other traffic signs and road markings.
2.2 The board of trustees' role
- Legally responsible for everything that happens at the school, including your school traffic safety team (once established).
- Required under National administration guidelines (No. 5) to:
- provide a safe physical and emotional environment for students
- comply with legislation developed to ensure the safety of students and employees.
- Considers road safety issues in context of whole school and community needs.
- Considers reports of hazard identification and risk management at school crossings.
- Ensures reports on school traffic safety team performance.
- Delegates the school traffic safety team operating functions to the principal (including the authority to sub-delegate to a teacher).
2.3 The principal's role
- Works with the delegated teacher, road controlling authority and school community officer to set up and run school traffic safety teams.
- Ensures the school traffic safety teams operate according to the standards to which they’ve been trained by the police school community officer.
- Establishes a system for recording and investigating incidents and near misses.
- Establishes a system for dealing with student misbehaviour at crossings in line with school discipline policies and processes.
- Reports to the board of trustees on any concerns, effectiveness of hazard identification and risk management at school crossings, and on school traffic safety team effectiveness and any ongoing difficulties being experienced.
2.4 The delegated teacher's role (if not done by the principal)
- Works with the principal, road controlling authority and school community officer to set up and run the school traffic safety team.
- Can be given the authority to recruit and appoint suitably trained adults (teachers or parents) to supervise your school traffic safety team.
- Ensures adults are inducted on the school traffic safety team procedures.
- Selects school traffic safety team members.
- Ensures parents or caregivers of the STST members give their signed permission.
- Develops and supervises rosters.
- Looks after and supervises the school patrol equipment, and reports any damage or loss to the road controlling authority.
- Ensures the school traffic safety teams operate according to the standards to which they’ve been trained by the police school community officer.
- Reports traffic breaches to New Zealand Police, via the principal or direct to the police in an emergency.
- Presents information to the principal about the operation of the school traffic safety team including recorded incidents and near misses.
2.5 The adult supervisor's role
- Commits to being available regularly throughout the year.
- Is inducted on the school traffic safety team legal requirements and performance standards, and understanding risk managment.
- Supervises school traffic safety team members, helping the students to perform their tasks correctly and providing practical support where necessary.
- Reports any incidents to the principal in the first instance of unsafe or illegal student or driver behaviour.
- Ensures the school traffic safety teams operate according to the standards to which they’ve been trained by the school community officer.
- Where necessary, provides witness accounts of traffic breaches in court.
- Implements the requirements of the Vulnerable Children’s Act 2015.
2.6 New Zealand Police's role
- Works with the principal and delegated teacher to arrange and implement initial and refresher training for school traffic safety team members and to help induct supervisors.
- Monitors the school traffic safety team to ensure it operates correctly.
- Liaises with the principal and delegated teacher on identified hazards and planned risk management.
- Responds to traffic enforcement breaches at pedestrian and kea crossings.
