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.
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.
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.
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.
Read next
- Next in Road signsRoad work ahead signAn orange diamond reading ROAD WORK AHEAD. It warns of construction or maintenance work on the road ahead.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of the ComorosThe Comoros flag is four horizontal stripes, yellow, white, red and blue from the top, with a green triangle along the pole holding a white crescent and four white stars in a line between its tips. Norway’s Store norske leksikon explains the crescent as the symbol of Islam and the four stars as the four islands of the Comoros; Lex says the four stripes are said to stand for the islands too.
More road signs
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with squares and rectangles or triangles.
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
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 25, 2026. How we research
Added .