{"id":352852,"date":"2026-07-26T11:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T11:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/352852\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T11:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T11:36:10","slug":"parents-mixed-on-e-bike-ban-for-orange-county-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/352852\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents mixed on e-bike ban for Orange County Public Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four of Nate Clark\u2019s kids ride e-scooters<\/a> to and from school \u2014 the easiest way for them to get to three separate campuses with three different start times, all at least a mile from their Baldwin Park home.<\/p>\n

But now the Orange County School Board is poised to ban e-bikes and e-scooters from elementary and middle school campuses and allow them only at high schools, and only if the student has a driver\u2019s license. The board is to vote Tuesday, with the outcome in little doubt as most members have signaled their support for the ban.<\/p>\n

The change leaves Clark, whose kids riding e-scooters are starting grades 5, 6, 8 and 9, and many other families scrambling for transportation answers just weeks before school starts Aug. 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t know how we\u2019re going to deal with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Clark and his wife both work full time, and because they live within two miles of the schools they do not qualify for bus service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bought our kids e-scooters specifically so that they could be more independent to go to and from school,\u201d Clark said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just punishing the kids. It\u2019s punishing the parents because now I\u2019m left with \u2018How am I going to get my elementary school kid to school next year?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark called the ban a \u201ccop out\u201d from the district. Instead, the focus should be on teaching students traffic rules and how to ride safely, he said.<\/p>\n

\"SiblingsSiblings Max Buza,11, and Casey Clark, 10, \u2014 with dad Nate Clark \u2014 with their electric scooters on Cady Way Trail in in Orlando, Friday, July 24, 2026. During the school year, the students use their e-scooters to commute 1.4 miles daily to Baldwin Park Elementary School. The Orange County School Board will vote Tuesday on a proposal to ban e-bikes and e-scooters at all elementary and middle school campuses \u2014for students without a driver\u2019s license\u2014 beginning in the 2026\u201327 school year. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Government agencies in Central Florida face a dilemma as they try to balance convenience, and the needs of families like Clark\u2019s, with rising safety concerns about electric vehicles that have gotten cheaper and faster while their riders have gotten younger.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of Orange County Public School students \u2014 including an estimated 42% of middle schoolers \u2014 rode e-scooters and e-bikes to school last school year, according to an OCPS survey of families, as the electric so-called micro mobility devices became increasingly popular.<\/p>\n

But school leaders also became increasingly worried as accidents spiked, one student died last year after an e-scooter crash off campus and throngs of students arrived and left campuses on the small vehicles, sometimes weaving among cars and failing to wear helmets.<\/p>\n

A video from May taken by Orange County sheriff\u2019s deputies and played at a Orange County commission meeting showed a huge rush of students leaving Windermere High School on e-bikes, some riding dangerously and riding the wrong way through traffic.<\/p>\n

The Orange County School Board decided a ban for most students made sense, a decision few other school districts nationwide seem to have made, despite growing concerns. But 3,000 miles away, a school district in Orange County, CA, is instituting a similar ban for the upcoming 2026-27 school year.<\/p>\n

Ashley LaChance\u2019s 13-year-old son Colton Remsburg, a seventh-grader at OCPS\u2019 Innovation Middle School, was fatally injured riding an e-scooter in May<\/a> in Lake Nona. LaChance supports the school district ban on micro mobility devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know many parents are probably frustrated by this decision, and I truly understand why,\u201d LaChance said. \u201cI have empathy for those families whose work schedules, daily routines and livelihoods are now disrupted because an e-scooter or e-bike was their child\u2019s primary means of transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OrlandoOrlando mom Ashley LaChance snapped a selfie of herself with 13-year-old son Colton Remsburg at an Orlando Magic-Detroit Pistons playoff basketball game in April at The KIA Center. Colton, born in Michigan, wore a Pistons jersey. He died about two weeks later when a pickup truck hit the e-scooter he was riding to a store near Lake Nona to buy a Mothers Day flower bouquet for his mom. (Ashley LaChance)<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it,\u201d LaChance said of juggling conflicting schedules. \u201cBut I also live with the unimaginable reality of what can happen. This kind of grief is unbearable\u2026It changes every part of who you are forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colton was on his way to the store to buy flowers for her for Mother\u2019s Day. He loved Detroit sports teams, quarterbacking his flag football team, cracking jokes and sharing his fishing expertise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure he taught the whole Lake Nona community how to fish,\u201d his mom said<\/p>\n

Maria Salamanca, the school board member who represents Lake Nona, said during a discussion of the proposed ban last week that her constituents support new restrictions.<\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t think educational initiatives would do enough to curb the spike in injuries from e-bikes and e-scooters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese students do not have a fully formed prefrontal cortex, and they\u2019re driving 40 miles per hour and doing wheelies and putting two or three students on one bike,\u201d Salamanca said. \u201cIt is a lot of fun. There is no Canvas course you can give these students that is going to be more exciting and more fun or more scary than putting three kids on a bike and going to do whatever you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monica Streets, the parent of an Apopka Middle School student, agrees. Elementary and middle school students are \u201cnot responsible enough to be adequately riding these e\u2011bikes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won\u2019t stop for stop signs. They just roll right through. I\u2019m guessing they don\u2019t think that they have to obey the traffic laws or no one has taught them,\u201d Streets said.<\/p>\n

Her son rides a regular bike to school, and though he has asked for an e-bike, she has said no. \u201cHis safety would be at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accidents involving e-bikes and e-scooters have jumped, both nationally and locally, doctors say.<\/p>\n

And because the electric devices are faster and heavier than their traditional counterparts, serious injuries are more common.<\/p>\n

The American College of Surgeons reported that over 20,000 people \u2014 many of them under the age of 14 \u2014 are injured riding e-bikes with 3,000 hospitalized annually, numbers that are not only growing but also likely under-reported.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Michalak, an epidemiologist with the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, said ER visits here for injuries related to e-bike and e-scooter accidents jumped 273% from 2022 to 2025.<\/p>\n

He said people aged 19 and younger accounted for over half of those ER visits in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s even more staggering is that a large proportion is the age group 10- to 14-years-old,\u201d Michalak told county commissioners mulling an e-bike ordinance. \u201cThat happens to be the middle-school age group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many involve helmetless riders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we get our trauma alerts, a lot of times I\u2019m thinking, \u2018OK, is it another e-bike or e-scooter injury?\u2019 \u201d said Dr. Marc Levy, a pediatric trauma surgeon for Orlando Health Children\u2019s Arnold Palmer Hospital. \u201cBecause they\u2019ve become more and more common.\u201d<\/p>\n

But parents opposed to OCPS\u2019 plans believe there are options besides a ban.<\/p>\n

Allison Scott\u2019s son William, who will start 10th grade at Horizon High School in August, rides an e-bike to school every morning. She called OCPS\u2019s planned ban \u201cextreme\u201d and said the district should instead focus on offering safety courses or having school resource officers enforce traffic laws.<\/p>\n

The family lives six miles from Horizon High and riding the e-bike is faster and more reliable for her son than taking a school bus, which she said is often late.<\/p>\n

She has spoken with her son about safety, helping pick a route and reminding him to use crosswalks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see both sides of the thing, but I don\u2019t feel like as a parent you should take away how our kid gets to school. We\u2019re doing all the things that the school wants,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Edgewater High student rides an e-bike on Par Avenue after school, Monday, April 20, 2026. On Tuesday, the Orange County School Board will met to vote on new restrictions to e-bikes and e-scooters for the upcoming school year. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Local governments are also considering, and making, changes to their laws to crack down on unsafe riding by children. In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed legislation that would have required e-bike and e-scooter riders to slow down around pedestrians and established a state task force to review risks, policy gaps and enforcement challenges. Instead, any regulations now fall to local governments.<\/p>\n

Orange County commissioners<\/a> may mandate helmets for riders 16 and younger and require riders to slow down when approaching pedestrians. They are to take up the proposal in August.<\/p>\n

The city of Ocoee earlier this month set a 10 mph speed limit on sidewalks and required riders to \u201cdismount when necessary for public safety,\u201d with pedestrians having priority on sidewalks and shared-use pathways.<\/p>\n

The fastest e-bikes \u2014 manufactured to go 28 mph at top speed, according to factory specifications, but can be easily modified to go much, much faster \u2014 are already forbidden in county parks and on the West Orange Trail.<\/p>\n

\"OsceolaOsceola County deputy Ron Cole teaches an e-bike safety class at the Celebration K-8, on Wednesday, April 8, 2026. On Tuesday, neighboring Orange County School Board will vote on a district-wide e-bike ban for students without a driver’s license. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Other local school districts haven\u2019t yet taken steps to restrict e-bikes and e-scooters. But the School District of Osceola County has hosted several e-bike safety courses for students in collaboration with the county sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District in southern California is banning e-bikes and scooters in its elementary and middle schools this coming year. Like OCPS, it said the new rule aims to improve safety \u2014 a teenager in that Orange County riding an e-bike struck and badly injured a substitute teacher, CBS News reported \u2014 but it recognized its ban will \u201cbe a change for some families.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four of Nate Clark\u2019s kids ride e-scooters to and from school \u2014 the easiest way for them to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[113,114,266,115,139,141,140,109],"class_list":["post-352852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}