Schools creating no-idle zones: Policies aimed at keeping fumes out of buildings

If children want to go home in a warm car, then they’ll have to spend less time goofing off after school.

State law say parents who pick up their children from school can leave their vehicles running for five minutes before they have to turn the engines off.

The law concerning indoor air quality requires schools to adopt policies that prevent bus drivers and parents from leaving their vehicles idle while they wait for their kids to come out of school, Franklin schools facility manager Bill Doty said.

Local schools are starting the policies this year. But how to enforce the rule is another matter.

“My concern is how do you enforce that with the parents. Do administrators have to go outside and ask parents to turn off their cars?” said Bill Long, Center Grove assistant superintendent.

Some schools say they will leave the monitoring to the parents themselves, while others say a knock at the window from an administrator might be in order.

The impetus for the policy is that less fumes from running vehicles will enter the school buildings through the ventilation systems if the drivers have to turn engines off while they wait, Doty said.

“It’s not like there’s a cloud of fumes going down the hallway, but there is a possibility that they can enter the building,” Doty said.

Center Grove and Greenwood schools already had policies in place for bus drivers to turn off their vehicles while they waited, but the new policies will apply the same rules to parents.

Franklin schools started a policy for both buses and parents this year, Doty said.

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