An ArcGIS user has a highway polyline dataset and a school point dataset. Which tool should be used to find schools within one mile of highways and report the distance?

The most suitable tool for this scenario is the Buffer tool. The reason this is the right choice lies in its ability to create a zone around a geographic feature, which in this case is the highway polyline dataset. By generating a one-mile buffer around the highways, you can then easily identify which schools fall within that buffered area.

Once the buffer is created, a spatial analysis can be performed to intersect with the school points dataset to list schools that are located within one mile from any part of the highway. Additionally, the Buffer tool can also facilitate reporting on distance by allowing for the spatial relationship to be analyzed directly.

While the Point Distance tool could be used to calculate distances between points, it does not help in filtering points that lie within a specific distance threshold of another feature, making it less effective for this purpose. The Identify tool is primarily used for inquiring about attributes of features, and the Near tool finds the nearest distance but doesn’t inherently create a distance buffer or determine which features fall within that distance threshold. Thus, using the Buffer tool aligns closely with the goal of identifying and reporting on the schools located near the highways.