New Britain School to Debut Walking School Bus Thursday

New Britain's Smith School will be debuting a "walking school bus" on Thursday. According to the Hartford Courant, several of the school's parents have volunteered to walk with groups of students to school in the morning and back home in the afternoon. 

The idea behind the walk to school group is to make walking to school safer and fun, while also building a sense of community and encouraging better school attendance. 

The idea of the "walking school bus" is based on similar programs throughout the U.S.
Students will gather at a pre-desingated spot (which is similar to waiting for the school bus), and then they will walk as a group to school. When school gets out the system will be in reverse. 

The New Britain police department is assigning a patrol car to lead the way for the group on the Thursday morning kick-off walk.