RALEIGH — They are just starting to pop up in school zones all over North Carolina -- and they are hard to miss! Fluorescent yellow-green signs are being posted on school streets from Murphy to Manteo.

The signs are bigger, brighter and more reflective than current signage. It is hoped they are also safer for school kids, and for anyone who needs to cross the street.

"We've appropriated $2.7 million worth of federal funds and we're taking that money and we're putting in new signs as you've seen," said N.C. Transportation Secretary David McCoy. "Popping up around the state in all 100 counties, every school on state-maintained roads will have these new signs."

One driving condition the signs are supposed to help with is rain. The new signs are 35 percent more reflective than the old version.

The new fluorescent sign is supposed to catch driver's attention, and put the driver on notice before the school zone is entered.

"Particularly with regard to the safety, the safety of our most vunerable, our children, we want to do everything we can to make sure that we keep them safe," McCoy said.

TheNorth Carolina Department of Transportationis in the process of putting up 20,000 warning signs statewide.

None of them will work unless drivers do heed the warning, and slow down in the school zone.