School crossing sign
A five-sided sign with two walking children. It warns of a school, a school zone or a crossing used by schoolchildren.
Rules vary by state and country. This explains the sign's standard meaning in the U.S. Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices; it isn't legal advice.
How to read it
The MUTCD calls it the School sign and gives it four uses: ahead of a school area; at the start of a designated school zone; with an AHEAD or distance plaque, ahead of a school crossing; and with a diagonal arrow plaque, at the crossing itself. Its pentagon shape is reserved for school signs, and Pennsylvania's manual calls it the only pentagon-shaped sign on the road.
Yellow or yellow-green
The 2009 MUTCD requires school warning signs to be fluorescent yellow-green with black lettering. Pennsylvania's manual still shows a yellow one, and says the sign may be either colour.
More road signs
Sources
- MUTCD 2009 Edition, Chapter 7B: School Signs, MUTCD 2009, Part 7, U.S. Federal Highway Administration, Sections 7B.07–7B.08
- MUTCD 2009 Edition, Chapter 2A: General, MUTCD 2009, Part 2, U.S. Federal Highway Administration, Section 2A.09, Table 2A-4
- Pennsylvania Driver's Manual, Chapter 2: Signals, Signs and Pavement Markings, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, p. 17
- California Driver's Handbook, Section 7: Laws and Rules of the Road, California Department of Motor Vehicles, Signs
- The Evolution of MUTCD, Updated December 2023; after H. Gene Hawkins, Jr., ITE Journal, 1991–1994, U.S. Federal Highway Administration, Part II, 1971 Fifth Edition
Last reviewed September 25, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research