Keeping Alberta’s children safe on our roads has been an AMA priority since the earliest days of the association. From ensuring safety at school crosswalks to fostering the next generation of safe drivers, our partnerships with schools are a major cornerstone of our community work and a point of pride for our organization.
2025 saw further expansion of our childhood safety programs, with more free reflective armbands than ever given out, an uptick in participation in our school safety program and an expansion of our school driver education program.
School Safety Program
AMA’s School Safety Program is undergoing one of its most significant evolutions in decades, building on a legacy of protecting Alberta’s children since 1938. As school environments become increasingly complex—with rising traffic volumes, new large-format schools, and growing time and resource constraints facing educators—AMA is reimagining what school safety needs to look like today.
The traditional crosswalk patrol model may no longer be a fit for some schools given changing infrastructure, yet the need for safer school journeys has never been greater. In response, AMA is adding some new tiers to its School Safety Patrol portfolio to ensure every school, regardless of size or location, can access safe-school support.
In 2025, AMA piloted different patrol roles at student drop-off and pick-up zones, drive-lane crossings, and school bus loading areas, and began supporting schools with parent communication toolkits and social media safety resources.
AMA is also strengthening partnerships with like-minded organizations to help enhance safe pedestrian movement around schools. At the heart of this work, student leadership remains central—giving young patrollers opportunities to grow as ambassadors, mentors, and changemakers within their school communities.
These new program tiers are being co-designed with educators to ensure they’re practical, accessible, and responsive to real-world school needs. Early feedback shows that teachers feel supported and confident with the new solutions AMA provides. These additions build on our longstanding commitment to helping assure child safety in school zones, helping empower students and giving families confidence that children can travel to and from school safely.
By honouring a long-standing program while adapting to today’s challenges, AMA is ensuring our legacy of protecting Alberta’s children continues for generations to come.
Driver Education in Schools
Driver Education: School Edition continued to expand in 2025, reflecting strong demand from educators, parents, and communities across Alberta. Following our pilot with McNally High School in 2024, 36 schools registered for the program in 2025, integrating AMA’s curriculum into their classrooms. These results indicate solid demand for in-school opportunities where students can learn the safe driving habits that parents and future employers want to see behind the wheel.
Despite early-year disruptions to the 2025/26 school year due to a teachers’ strike, student engagement remains strong. By October 2025, 165 students had officially enrolled in the program, with more expected before year-end as schools regain momentum. To support this growth, 23 teachers are currently trained and facilitating driver education in their schools, with more educators set to join as programming resumes across divisions.
The steady uptake of Driver Education: School Edition underscores the importance of equipping young Albertans with foundational road-safety knowledge long before they begin driving. By meeting students where they are—directly in the classroom—AMA is helping to build confident, safety-minded future drivers and strengthening long-term community road safety across the province.
Kids Go Free
Eleven years ago, we introduced an added membership benefit for Plus and Premier members called Kids Go Free, a feature designed to ensure members’ children are protected on the road, even when not with their parents or guardians. Under Kids Go Free, children under 16 have 24/7 access to Roadside Assistance no matter who they’re travelling with. This means if auntie’s car breaks down or has a flat tire on the way to the park or a weekend sleepover, we’ve got them covered.
Reflective Armband Program
For many children, Halloween night is a highlight of the year, but with kids out and about and crossing streets in the dark, safety is foremost on many parents’ minds as October 31 approaches. To help kids be seen and give parents some peace of mind, every October AMA hands out free reflective armbands to families across Alberta to improve children’s visibility while trick-or-treating.
In 2025, thousands of AMA members and nearly 80 community groups took advantage of this offer, including Bike Bus Edmonton, Filipino Language and Culture School of Edmonton, the Family Futures Resource Network, Devon Citizen on Patrol, Heritage Park, and various schools, preschools, scouting organizations, and other community groups.
In all, we gave out 45,903 armbands—nearly double the number given out in 2024— helping to keep the province’s most vulnerable road users safe while they’re focused on having fun.
