Outside the class, parents have to learn where to drop their kids off, where to park when picking them up and how to navigate after-school traffic. The students themselves also have to learn where to cross the street as they leave and the traffic laws that apply to them if they choose to bike, skate or otherwise roll to and from school.

And after almost a month of school, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety is hoping those lessons have been learned.

At the beginning of each school year, officers ease off strict enforcement of loading zone and parking lot restrictions to give parents a chance to learn the ropes. They still strictly enforce speeding, stop sign and red-zone violations, but they grant some leniency for the minor infractions.

"We do it because parents are learning new routines, and there may be new rules or drop-off points, so we cut them some slack at first," Sunnyvale Communications Officer John Pilger said.

But then on Sept. 16, officers took to the streets outside Columbia Middle School to begin heavier enforcement, writing a number of $32 tickets and giving out warnings to parents parked in white pickup/drop-off zones outside the school. Officers were also watching the departing students to make sure those with bikes, in-line skates or scooters were also wearing helmets.

Persons under 18 are required to wear a helmet at all times when riding, and if cited for violating the law, must go—with their parents—to a county run "safety school" program.

Sunnyvale Public Safety Officer Anthony Tani, from the department's traffic safety unit, said officers are giving out an average of about 10 citations a week for helmet violations, but that doesn't mean there's a shortage of protective headgear.

"Most of these kids have helmets, but for whatever reasons, they leave them at home," Tani said, watching a group of students cross Fair Oaks Avenue and Ahwanee Avenue. "The first part of the school year, the kids tend to get a little lax, but as friends start to see other friends getting cited, they start wearing them."

Although the traffic problems outside elementary and middle schools often involve either helmet laws or parents breaking traffic laws, Tani said each school in Sunnyvale presents a different set of problems. Large schools like Fremont and Homestead High School present different problems because many students drive themselves to school.

"At schools like Homestead, you have a lot of different drivers, you have new drivers, and then you have teenagers looking to 'test the limits of the laws,'" Tani said.

Although there were a number of public-safety officers out on Sept. 16, traffic issues are usually handled by neighborhood resource officers at each school.