Clark County commissioners voted to pump an extra $715,557 a year into school crossing guard staffing, a move that comes as the Clark County School District Police Department reports 122 students have already been struck by vehicles since the school year began on August 10. The amended contract increases the county's funding for crossing guard services.
The vote, first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, expands an existing crossing guard contract. County officials said children's safety while traveling to and from school is a top priority for the board, and that the new funding will allow additional guards to be hired when schools need them. A county spokesperson told the paper that specific details on guard numbers, placements, and start dates were still being gathered as of Tuesday evening.
A local company recruits crossing guards, who are paid about $16 to $17 an hour.
A Pattern of Expansion Across the Valley
This is not the first time the county has widened its crossing guard footprint. The county expanded coverage to middle schools, adding 84 guards across 23 schools.
Neighboring jurisdictions have moved in the same direction. The City of Las Vegas expanded crossing guard deployments to five more high schools in July 2026, bringing its total to nine high schools and roughly $3.59 million a year spent on 322 crossing guards across 92 campuses citywide. The same report put the overall number of student pedestrian incidents during the 2025–2026 school year at 347.
A total of 432 students were involved in traffic crashes during the 2025–2026 school year. The figure comes amid a broader local push for traffic-calming measures beyond human guards. Parent advocates launched the “Slow Down Vegas” petition this month, citing that same crash count while calling for a 10-school pilot program using relocatable speed cushions to physically force drivers to slow near campuses.
A Grassroots Group Born From Tragedy
The additional county funding is intended to support student safety.
Crossing guards can aid students at crosswalks.
What State Law Requires of Drivers
Nevada law already backs guards with legal teeth. Under Nevada Revised Statute 484B.350, drivers must stop and obey a school crossing guard's direction and cannot proceed until all pedestrians and the guard have cleared the roadway; failing to do so is a misdemeanor with enhanced penalties if a driver causes a collision. Separately, Nevada law addresses school-zone speeding under NRS 484B.363.
Nevada Assembly Bill 527 took effect in 2025 and authorized cameras on school buses, per UNLV Road Safety.
Infrastructure Fixes Alongside Staffing
Guard staffing has not been the county's only response to the crash numbers. Clark County opened the Tenaya Paseo Pedestrian Bridge at Gunderson Middle School in Mountain's Edge in August 2024 to route walking students over a storm canal, after 15 students from that campus were struck by vehicles during the 2023–2024 school year, as Hoodline reported at the time. The bridge went in alongside the county's new wave of middle school crossing guard deployments.
Even with that bridge in place, Hoodline later reported that two juveniles were struck after the bridge opened.
