Grant Program
About
Colorado Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a federally and state-funded grant program with the goal of increasing the number of children walking, biking and rolling to school. The Colorado SRTS grant program typically holds calls for projects every two years. Grants are competitively awarded to eligible applicants to fund infrastructure and education projects for primary and secondary school areas.
Read the fact sheet on the up-coming call.
Timeline
The next grant application period will be released on October 30, 2026.
Please subscribe to our Active Transportation Updates to receive the announcement when applications will be accepted.
How to Apply
Additional details will be released on October 30, 2026.
Applicants must be a political subdivision of the state to apply. Non-profits can apply by partnering with a school district or local government.
Understand the time and effort to manage a grant-funded project. If you are new to CDOT grants, learn what grants management at CDOT looks like by taking our overview training linked below.
Be financially prepared for your portion of the costs. Applicants provide a minimum of 20% of the total project costs, unless qualifying for a reduced match via the match sliding scale. In addition, SRTS is a cost reimbursement program, which means grant payments will be made as reimbursements for project expenses after proof is provided that expenses have been incurred and paid by the grantee.
Funds must benefit school-aged children in kindergarten through 12th grade. Projects must be within a 2-mile radius of the identified school(s).
There are two types of awards:
- Infrastructure grants: Capital and construction projects that make it safer for students to walk and bike to and from school.
- Minimum grant award: $100,000 per project
- Maximum grant award: $1 million per project
- Eligible infrastructure projects: Planning, design and construction of infrastructure that will substantially improve the ability of students to walk and bicycle to school safely, such as building new or making improvements to sidewalks, bike lanes, road crossings, ADA access, traffic calming infrastructure, or bike parking.
- Note: Infrastructure projects must be within the public right-of-way. This may include projects on private land that have a public easement or public property owned by a public entity.
- Non-infrastructure grants: Education, encouragement and enforcement activities that engage children to walk and bike safely to and from school.
- Minimum grant award: $10,000 per project
- Maximum grant award: $1 million per project
- Eligible non-infrastructure activities: Activities that encourage walking and biking to school, such as public awareness campaigns, bicycle safety skills education and training course areas, and funding for SRTS coordinators.
All applicants must submit a Letter of Interest (LOI), which will be released on October 30, 2026 and are due for submission by December 15, 2026. LOI submissions will be reviewed for regulatory and engineering compliance, including eligibility, project readiness, cost estimates and schedule reasonableness. Feedback will be provided to each LOI applicant for incorporation into the formal grant application.
This information will be released in the fall of 2026. Stay tuned.
