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.
Timeline
The next Colorado Safe Routes to School grant application period is anticipated to open in October of 2026.
Please subscribe to our Active Transportation Updates to receive the announcement when applications will be accepted.
How to Apply
The 2026 call for projects will open in October of 2026. More details will be released in summer of 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.
Materials will be released in Fall 2026 for this step.
Once a letter of intent is submitted, it will be sent to the appropriate local CDOT engineer to initiate a pre-application review.
Feedback will be shared with each applicant regarding the proposed project. Those elements will need to be incorporated into the project proposal.
Please note all applications must go through this step.
This information will be released in the fall of 2026. Stay tuned.
