Editor's note: This story was updated to include responses from the school district

APOPKA, Fla. — Not all parents appreciate how their child’s first day back to school went.

Families of K - 8th grade students attending the new Kelly Park School in Apopka are upset that school leaders expected their children to walk to school despite living over two miles away.

The gate from the Oak Ridge neighborhood in Apopka to Kelly Park School is about one and a half miles. But for many homeowners in the community of about 250 homes, the walk would be well over two.

Summer is over, and for Elizabeth Whitby, the stay-at-home mom is now sending her son off to kindergarten. The problem for her son and many others in the neighborhood, is how the children will get to school.

“The path we are headed on is the one mile path,” Elizabeth Whitby, a mother of a kindergartener, says walking on the sidewalk in her neighborhood.

This path isn’t to a school bus stop. It’s a path to the exit of her neighborhood which the district is using to measure the distance from to Kelly Park School. That school educates grades K - 8.

From the gate to the school, the distance by foot or bike is a mile and a half. According to the district, a reasonable walking distance for any student is two miles.

“From my house alone, it’s a mile to get to this gate,” Whitby said. “It would be 2.5 miles to the school. I would do that with my son, but I would be concerned with my safety.”

What is also concerning for parents in this neighborhood is that if their kids are going to walk or take their bike to school, there is no crossing guard or button to help them cross the road during that morning commute. That has parents on edge about child safety.

Orange County Public Schools responded to Whitley's concerns by pointing to state guidelines for transportation eligibility. 

Florida Statute 1006.23 states: 

A reasonable walking distance for any student who is not otherwise eligible for transportation pursuant to Section 1011.68, F.S., is any distance not more than two (2) miles between the home and school or one and one-half (1 1/2) miles between the home and the assigned bus stop. Such distance shall be measured from the closest pedestrian entry point of the property where the student resides to the closest pedestrian entry point of the assigned school building or to the assigned bus stop. The pedestrian entry point of the residence shall be where private property meets the public right-of-way. The district shall determine the shortest pedestrian route whether or not it is accessible to motor vehicle traffic.

Whitby's concerns also extend to the sidewalk.

“This is the concern I have as a parent,” Whitby said. “There is a sidewalk on one side of the street, but not at the other.”

School board member Melissa Byrd addressed the issue in an e-mail to Whitby before the school year began that she has asked the district’s transportation department if the state labels these hazardous walking conditions, so that it can trigger bus service. Byrd also mentions she is asking the city to help solve the sidewalk issue.

The district says walking conditions are considered hazardous if there is not "an area at least 4 feet wide adjacent to the road, not including drainage ditches, sluiceways, swales, or channels, having a surface upon which students may walk without being required to walk on the road surface."

As for the high schoolers in this community, they are zoned for Apopka High, which is a farther distance than Kelly Park School. The gate to the neighborhood currently is one of two bus stops for the high schoolers.