Community Safety IEP Goals: 17 Examples by Setting and Grade

A community safety IEP goal names the place, the routine, the steps the student completes without help and how many community outings must show it. A typical criterion reads “7 of 8 street-crossing steps independent, including every safety step, with 0 critical errors, on 4 consecutive outings at 2 intersections.” The outing count matters because a skill shown in class or on one familiar route may not hold on a new street or in a new store: a review of 23 community-based instruction (CBI) studies found mostly positive results but mixed generalization and maintenance (Walker et al., 2010).

Which community safety skills should you teach off campus?

Community safety skills are the routines a student uses to stay safe in public places away from school and home: crossing streets, riding transit, getting help when lost, responding to unfamiliar people and handling emergencies. Community safety IEP goals for special education students fall into five domains:

1. Pedestrian and parking-lot safety: curbs, signals, crosswalks, driveways, backing cars.
2. Buses and trains: planning, boarding, riding, getting off at the right stop.
3. Getting lost and finding a safe helper: staying put, going to a staffed counter, showing an emergency contact card.
4. Unfamiliar people and pressure in public: declining to go along, keeping money and a phone, moving to a staffed area.
5. Emergencies in public: calling 911 with a location, severe weather, a dead phone.

Hazards inside the school building and at home, school drills and online safety belong to safety awareness IEP goals, linked in Related IEP Goal Resources below. This post stays off campus.

Grade bands in the examples are a starting point; choose goals from transition assessment, the student’s real community routines and their safety history. In Grades K–5, goals cover parking lots, staying with the adult and what to do when separated in a store; NHTSA advises that children under 10 should not cross the street alone (NHTSA). Grades 6–8 add signals on set routes, stores, unfamiliar adults and severe weather. In Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs, transit, job-site routes and emergencies take over, and the same goals carry into community safety for adults with disabilities.

These are functional goals: IDEA requires “a statement of measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals” (34 CFR §300.320(a)(2)(i)). Beginning not later than the first IEP in effect when a student turns 16 (or earlier if the team decides), §300.320(b) calls for postsecondary goals in training, education, employment and, “where appropriate, independent living skills,” and a community safety annual goal often supports that last one.

How do you take a community safety baseline?

A community safety baseline is a task-analysis probe: break the routine into steps, score the help the student needed on each, and report the percentage of steps done independently across 2–3 probes. Task analysis, prompting and time delay are among the 28 evidence-based practices identified by the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice (Steinbrenner et al., 2020).

A street-crossing task analysis, drawing on NHTSA’s guidance to “look left-right-left” and wait until the signal “shows ‘Walk’ before you cross” (NHTSA), has 8 steps:

1. Stop at the curb.
2. Find the crosswalk signal (point to it or name it).
3. Wait for the walk signal.
4. Look left-right-left and check for turning cars.
5. Cross within the lines.
6. Keep scanning while crossing.
7. Reach the far curb.
8. Continue on the sidewalk.

Score each step I (independent), G (gestural), V (verbal) or P (physical prompt); any prompted step is not independent. Probe with the student first in line, so the score reflects their own decision rather than the group’s.

Define critical errors for each routine before the first probe. On a street: stepping off the curb before the walk signal or without looking. In a parking lot: entering a drive lane without stopping, or while a car is moving or backing. On a platform: crossing the edge line, or moving toward the doors before the train stops. On a bus: boarding an unplanned bus. Anywhere: leaving the group, or going with an unfamiliar person. A missed stop is an error to recover from, not a critical error.

A critical error ends the probe, and staff intervene at once. No one waits to “see what happens.” Mark the step CE, leave the remaining steps unscored (“n/s”), and finish the crossing beside the student. Any further crossings that outing count as teaching and aren’t scored.

If a real setting isn’t safe for a baseline yet, use simulation (a campus parking lot, a crosswalk taped on the blacktop, a video model) and write “simulation” on the sheet. The goal itself is still met in the community. The clipboard sheet lists steps down the left, one column per outing (date, location, staff position, simulation or community), and rows for percentage independent and critical errors.

Print a blank copy (one page, no sign-up): Download the checklist and rubric data sheet (PDF, one page)

Community safety IEP goal examples by setting

The community safety IEP goals below each have a condition, an observable behavior, a criterion across outings or locations and a measurement method, then an example baseline in parentheses to replace with the student’s own probe data. Safety-critical steps are held to 100%, and task-analysis goals add “0 critical errors.” Name the staff role (CBI teacher, trained paraeducator) in the IEP, and accept spoken responses by device, sign or card. To build in durability, add “and on a maintenance probe 4 weeks after the criterion is met.”

Streets, crosswalks and parking lots

1. Grades K–5. By [date], walking from the bus or car to a store entrance during community outings with staff at 1:2, [Student] will complete the 4-step parking-lot routine (hold the cart or the adult’s hand, stop at the edge of each drive lane, wait for the adult’s “clear,” cross beside the adult), scored independent only when done at every lane, with all 4 steps independent and 0 critical errors on 4 consecutive outings at 2 different parking lots, as measured by staff task-analysis recording. (Baseline, 3 outings: median 1 of 4 steps independent; let go of the cart on 2 of 3 outings.)
2. Grades 6–8. By [date], on community walks along 2 set routes with staff beside [Student], [Student] will respond correctly to every pedestrian sign and signal on the route (wait at “Don’t Walk,” keep going if it starts flashing mid-crossing, cross on “Walk,” use the marked crosswalk) at 100% of signs and signals on 3 consecutive walks per route, as measured by staff event recording on a route checklist. (Baseline, 2 walks: correct at 5 of 9 signs and signals, although [Student] named every sign correctly on a classroom worksheet.)
3. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], during community-based instruction at signalized intersections, [Student] will complete the 8-step street-crossing routine listed above with at least 7 of 8 steps independent, steps 1, 3, 4 and 6 (stop at the curb, wait for the walk signal, look left-right-left and for turning cars, keep scanning) independent on every crossing, and 0 critical errors on 4 consecutive outings at 2 different intersections, as measured by staff task-analysis recording. (Baseline, 3 outings: 1, 2 and 4 of 8 steps independent, median 2; stepped off the curb before the walk signal on 2 of 3 outings, which ended those probes.)
4. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], on the walking route from the bus stop to a community job site, [Student] will stop at each driveway and parking-lot exit, look for moving or backing vehicles, and cross only when no vehicle is moving toward the path, at 100% of driveways on 4 consecutive trips with staff 10 feet behind between driveways and within reach at each driveway, as measured by staff event recording on a route checklist. (Baseline, 3 trips with staff beside: stopped at 4 of 12 driveways; walked behind a reversing car once, a critical error.)

Buses and trains

5. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], on a named bus route between school and a community job site, [Student] will complete the 7-step bus routine (check the posted or app arrival time, identify the bus number, board and tap the fare card, choose a seat near the driver, track stops by naming the stop before theirs, pull the cord at the correct stop, exit and walk to the destination) with at least 6 of 7 steps independent, steps 2 and 6 independent on every trip, and 0 critical errors on 5 consecutive trips with staff two rows behind, after fading from beside, as measured by staff task-analysis recording. (Baseline, 3 trips with staff beside: 2 of 7 steps independent; missed the stop on 1 of 3 trips.)
6. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], given a destination and an arrival time, [Student] will use a transit app or printed schedule to record the route number, the boarding stop and a departure that arrives at least 5 minutes early, with all 3 correct in 4 of 5 trip plans across 2 different routes over at least 3 weeks, as measured by teacher review of the written plan. (Baseline, 3 plans: route correct in 2, stop correct in 1, departure correct in 0.)
7. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], on train or light-rail trips with staff within arm’s reach on the platform (fading to one row away on board only), [Student] will complete the 6-step platform routine (stand behind the platform edge line, wait until the train stops and the doors open, let riders exit, step over the gap to board, sit or hold a rail, exit at the target station) with at least 5 of 6 steps independent, steps 1, 2 and 4 independent on every trip, and 0 critical errors on 4 consecutive trips at 2 different stations, as measured by staff task-analysis recording. (Baseline, 2 trips: 2 of 6 steps independent; stepped past the edge line once as the train arrived.)
8. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], during practice trips on a familiar route in which staff ask [Student] to ride past the target stop (staff on board, two rows behind), [Student] will get off at the next stop, stay there, call or text their designated contact using a script, then, with staff off the bus and within reach at the curb, cross at the signal to the opposite-direction stop to board the return bus, completing all 4 steps in 3 of 3 practice trips across 2 routes, as measured by a staff probe checklist. (Baseline, 2 campus role-plays: started walking to look for the stop in both.)

Getting lost and finding a safe helper

Arrange staged separations with the store manager and tell the family (or the adult student) beforehand; keep them brief, have a second staff member keep the student in view, and end the separation at the first sign of distress.

9. Grades K–5. By [date], during planned separations in a store, when [Student] can’t see their adult, [Student] will stay inside the store on every separation, and go to the nearest checkout counter or an employee with a name tag and say or show “I’m lost” in 4 of 5 separations, across 2 different stores, as measured by a staff probe checklist. (Baseline, 3 campus probes: left the area to search in 2; asked for help in 0.)
10. Grades 6–8. By [date], when separated from the group in a store during a planned, staff-monitored “lost” scenario, [Student] will stay inside the store on every scenario, and go to a checkout counter or an employee in a store uniform and show their emergency contact card or say that they are lost in 4 of 5 scenarios, across 3 different stores, as measured by a staff probe checklist. (Baseline: in 3 simulated scenarios on campus, left the area to search for staff twice and did not show the card in any.)
11. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], during scenarios arranged with store security or a school resource officer, when a store employee, security guard or police officer asks who [Student] is or who to contact, [Student] will keep their hands visible, say or sign where their ID or emergency contact card is (“My card is in my front pocket”), and hand it over when asked, in 4 of 5 scenarios across 2 locations, as measured by a staff probe checklist. (Baseline, 3 role-plays: reached into a backpack without speaking in 2.)

This goal is about showing the card to the right person. Saying an address and phone number from memory, and knowing who not to tell, is a separate skill covered in personal information IEP goals.

Unfamiliar people and pressure in public

Teach these through role-play, then probe in a store or station with a briefed adult the student hasn’t met. Get administrator approval where policy requires it, brief site management, and get consent from the family or the adult student. The briefed adult never touches or leads the student; stop at signs of distress, and debrief afterward.

12. Grades 6–8. By [date], when an unfamiliar adult in a planned scenario in a store asks [Student] to come with them, [Student] will say “no” (or sign it or use their device), walk toward staff or a staffed counter within 10 seconds, and tell staff what happened, completing all 3 steps in 4 of 4 probes across 2 locations, as measured by a staff probe checklist. (Baseline, 3 campus role-plays: agreed to go in 2.)
13. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], when an unfamiliar person in a planned scenario at a bus stop or store entrance asks to borrow [Student]’s phone or asks for money, [Student] will say a taught phrase (“Sorry, I can’t”), keep the item and move toward staff or a staffed area, in 4 of 4 scenarios across 2 locations with 2 different adults, as measured by a staff probe checklist. (Baseline, 3 role-plays: handed over the phone in 2.)
14. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], when an unfamiliar person in a planned scenario keeps talking, follows or pressures [Student] after one “no” at a transit station or shopping center, [Student] will move to a staffed area (a store counter or station agent) and tell the employee they need help, in 4 of 4 scenarios across 2 locations, as measured by a staff probe checklist. (Baseline, 2 role-plays: stayed and kept talking in both.)

Emergencies in public

15. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], during role-played emergencies at 2 community sites told in advance (a quiet corner of a park, a store), using a training phone that cannot place calls, [Student] will dial 9-1-1, say what happened, give the location from a visible street sign, business name or the address on their card, and stay on the line until the “call-taker” (a staff member) ends the call, completing all 4 steps on 4 consecutive scenarios across both sites, as measured by a staff probe checklist. (Baseline, 3 classroom role-plays: dialed correctly in 3; gave a usable location in 0.)
16. Grades 6–8. By [date], during community outings when thunder is heard or staff call a planned shelter practice, [Student] will stop the activity and start moving with the group toward the indoor shelter staff name (a store, library or station) within 10 seconds of the cue, and stay inside until staff give the all-clear, in 4 of 4 events across 2 locations, as measured by staff event recording. (Baseline, 2 campus practices: kept playing until a second prompt in both.)
17. Grades 9–12 and 18–22 programs. By [date], during planned scenarios on community outings in which [Student]’s phone is “dead” (switched off by agreement), [Student] will go into a staffed business arranged in advance (a store counter, library desk or rec center front desk), ask to use the phone or ask an employee to call for them, and reach a contact from their emergency contact card or memory, completing all 3 steps in 4 of 5 scenarios across 2 locations, as measured by a staff probe checklist. (Baseline, 2 classroom role-plays: chose “ask someone on the street” in both.)

A practice phone must not be able to reach 911: “All wireless phones, even those that are not subscribed to or supported by a specific carrier, can call 911” (911.gov). Use a toy phone or a practice app on a device that can’t make calls, and put real phones away. If a real call connects by accident, 911.gov says “do not hang up”; explain what happened.

Related IEP Goal Resources

• SMART IEP goals
• safety awareness IEP goals
• daily living skills IEP goals
• adaptive skills IEP goals

How do you move community safety skills from classroom to street?

Community-based instruction (CBI) means teaching a skill in the real community setting where it will be used, such as a street, store or bus. The National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: The Collaborative (NTACT:C) rates CBI a research-based practice for safety skills (NTACT:C). Its rating rests on three single-case studies with 28 students with intellectual disability, aged 10 to 18, which paired community instruction with simulation to teach street crossing and getting help when lost.

Sequence each routine in four stages:

1. Classroom simulation and video modeling: a taped crosswalk, a printed schedule, a video of the actual route.
2. Campus practice: the school’s parking lot, bus loop and front office.
3. Community instruction with staff beside the student. If the baseline shows critical errors, plan a ratio that keeps staff within reach of that student at every curb and platform edge.
4. Staff fading by distance: beside, then behind, then a set distance, moving on after 2–3 outings with 0 critical errors. At curbs and platform edges, staff stay within reach at every stage. Record staff position so reduced supervision isn’t mistaken for reduced prompting. Solo travel is a separate team and family decision under district policy.

For chained routines, total-task chaining teaches every step in every session. Constant time delay starts with an immediate prompt, then waits a fixed few seconds so the student can respond first; at a curb, use it only with staff in blocking position. NTACT:C rates both promising for students with intellectual disability (NTACT:C, 2022).

Families can practice on weekend outings with the same step list; keep their log separate as home practice unless the IEP names family data as a measure of generalization.

Before the first community outing

Teams usually put these in place before the first outing:

• the community instruction written into the IEP’s services, with location, frequency and duration;
• written permission from the family, or from the student if rights have transferred at the age of majority, and a contact reachable during the outing;
• the student’s emergency contact card, made in class and carried on every outing;
• health and behavior plans (medication, seizure or allergy plans, a behavior intervention plan) carried by trained staff;
• a staff ratio and staff positions agreed under district policy;
• a written plan for a student who leaves the group: who searches, who stays with the others, and who calls the office, the family and 911, and when;
• a simulation or campus baseline on file and in the present levels.

Permissions, ratios and transportation rules vary by district and state, so follow your district’s CBI policy.

Rewriting a vague community safety goal

Pair 1: a community safety goal no one can observe

• Weak: “[Student] will be safe in the community.”
• Why it fails: no place, behavior or count; two adults watching the same outing could disagree about whether the student was “safe.”
• Strong (Grades 6–8): By [date], in store parking lots during community-based instruction, [Student] will walk beside the adult or on the marked path, stop at the edge of each drive lane, look for moving or backing cars and cross when the lane is clear, with all 4 steps independent and 0 critical errors on 3 consecutive outings at 2 different lots, as measured by staff task-analysis recording. (Baseline, 3 outings: 2 of 4 steps independent; walked into a drive lane without stopping once.) Unlike goal 1, the student judges “clear” without the adult’s signal.

Pair 2: a transit goal with no steps, prompts or baseline

• Weak: “The student will independently check the bus schedule, identify the correct bus number, and pay the fare correctly for their route in 4 out of 5 independent travel trials.”
• Why it fails: “independently” has no prompt levels, there are no critical errors or baseline, staff fading isn’t planned, and “independent travel trials” is never defined.
• Strong: goal 5 above: 7 named steps, 6 of 7 independent with the bus number and the stop request independent every trip, 0 critical errors, staff fading to two rows behind and a 3-trip baseline.

How do you track community safety progress across outings?

Track community safety progress by scoring the same step list on every outing, graphing the percentage of steps independent and marking critical errors so a rising line can’t hide a dangerous step. One adult can’t score four students at once, so score at least one probe per student per outing, rotate who goes first and fill in the sheet right after. Review the graph every 4–6 outings. An example from three outings at one intersection:

On 9/14 the probe stopped at step 3, so steps 4–8 weren’t scored.

Write the decision rules into the plan before the first outing:

• Any critical error: staff return to beside the student on the next outing, and the team is told.
• A critical error on 2 consecutive outings: step back to simulation or campus practice, and the team reviews the plan.
• Flat data across 3 outings: change the prompting (add time delay or video priming before the outing) before changing the goal.
• Mastery: the criterion is met in at least 2 different community locations, then confirmed by a maintenance probe 4 weeks later. Where possible, make one location a place that wasn’t used for teaching.

These are team rules rather than research thresholds; they answer the mixed generalization and maintenance results in the CBI research (Walker et al., 2010). IDEA requires the IEP to describe how progress toward the annual goals will be measured and when progress reports will be provided (34 CFR §300.320(a)(3)). Report against the goal’s own criterion (“6 of 8 independent, 0 critical errors, 2 of 4 outings, 1 of 2 intersections”), log outings planned against outings held, and keep simulation, campus and community data separate so a classroom score is never reported as a community skill.

A Transition Curriculum lesson: Community Awareness

Ori Learning’s Transition Curriculum includes a lesson called “Community Awareness” in its Grades 11–12 course. Students work toward three objectives: “Recall ways to be more aware when out in the community,” “Identify potential hazards and risks when out in the community” and “Create an emergency contact card.”

The lesson gives students a plain safety tip: “Before going somewhere, make sure your parents, guardians, or roommates know your plan. Let them know where you are going and what time you plan to be back.” A check-for-understanding asks, “If you were out in public and your phone died, what would you do?” Students choose between asking a stranger to use their phone, going into a local store or business to ask to use their phone, or charging at a local coffee shop or library. In Task B, one scenario reads, “You were watching videos on your phone and missed your bus stop,” the situation behind goal 8, and the dead-phone question is the decision goal 17 practices on a real outing.

Students then build their own emergency contact card, the card the student shows in goals 10 and 11.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Education. 34 CFR §300.320, Definition of individualized education program. https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/d/300.320
2. Walker, A. R., Uphold, N. M., Richter, S., & Test, D. W. (2010). Review of the literature on community-based instruction across grade levels. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 45(2), 242–267. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ884382
3. National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: The Collaborative. Community-Based Instruction to Teach Safety Skills. https://transitionta.org/effective-practices/pd-community-based-instruction-to-teach-safety-skills/; and Effective Practices in Secondary Transition: Operational Definitions (updated June 2022). https://transitionta.org/wp-content/uploads/docs/Updated_EBP_Definitions_June_2022.pdf
4. Steinbrenner, J. R., Hume, K., Odom, S. L., Morin, K. L., Nowell, S. W., Tomaszewski, B., Szendrey, S., McIntyre, N. S., Yücesoy-Özkan, S., & Savage, M. N. (2020). Evidence-based practices for children, youth, and young adults with autism. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice Review Team. https://ncaep.fpg.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/EBP-Report-2020.pdf
5. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Pedestrian Safety. https://www.nhtsa.gov/road-safety/pedestrian-safety
6. 911.gov, National 911 Program. FAQ About Calling 911. https://www.911.gov/calling-911/frequently-asked-questions/

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