For families

School Bike Policies

Every Solon school handles bikes and walkers a little differently. Here's what each building's own 2025-26 handbook actually says, gathered in one place for families deciding whether to ride.

Elementary

Lewis and Roxbury

Lewis Elementary

Bike riders dismount at the Cannon Road sidewalk and walk their bike the rest of the way to the racks, families aren't allowed up at the building. Grades K-1 need a parent or responsible adult with them; grades 2-4 can ride independently once the office has a written note from a parent placing the student on the approved list of walkers and bike riders. Helmets are required, and students crossing Cannon Road must use the crosswalk at the church or at Tracy Lane.

Roxbury Elementary

Bikes are allowed to and from school, weather permitting, with a required helmet. Grades K-4 need a parent or responsible adult with them at all times. Bike riders join the walker pickup line at Door #2 at the end of the day, and the only supervised crossing is at Orchard and Solon Boulevard, the one spot with a crossing guard. Riding unsafely, or crossing anywhere else, can get a student's bike-riding permission revoked.

Parkside Elementary

Bikes are allowed to and from school, weather permitting, with a required helmet. Unlike Lewis or Roxbury, there's no grade-level carve-out here: a parent or responsible adult must accompany the student at all times, no independent riding for older elementary kids. Students crossing SOM Center Road are expected to use the crosswalk at Ada Drive; crossing anywhere else, or unsafely, gets a student's bike-riding permission revoked.

Middle school

Orchard and SMS

Orchard Middle School

Helmets are strongly encouraged here, not required, and a lock is recommended for the bike racks near the recess doors. Riding home requires written parent permission on file, even for students who normally ride the bus. Bikes get walked, not ridden, off the shared Orchard/Roxbury campus before a student can get on and go, and riders have to stay clear of the bus pickup area. Skateboards, scooters, and roller skates or blades aren't allowed at all.

Solon Middle School (SMS)

SMS's handbook doesn't mention biking to school at all: no helmet rule, no drop-off procedure, nothing saying whether it's even allowed. If your student wants to ride, it's worth asking the building directly rather than assuming.

High school

Solon High School

SHS's handbook doesn't cover pedal-bike policy either, no helmet rule, no drop-off procedure. The one bike-related rule in effect districtwide is separate from the handbook: throttle-equipped e-bikes are banned on all district property, upheld again for 2026-27. See our full campaign on that ban, including where the district's response fell short.

Gaps worth closing

Two buildings, SMS and SHS, have no published pedal-bike policy at all. The district's own Code of Conduct doesn't address bikes either, it's entirely a building-by-building patchwork. That's not necessarily a problem, but it does mean no family at SMS or SHS has a clear answer on helmets, drop-off, or where to lock up. If you know differently, or if your student's school has since published something, tell us and we'll fix this page.

Building the case

Thinking about a bike bus?

Lewis and Roxbury already have real walker/bike-rider infrastructure in place: approved lists, dismount zones, pickup lines. That's a head start. See our bike bus campaign for where that stands.

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