Beginning this year, the school district launched a new app that allows parents to monitor their students on the bus ride to and from school, including where a specific bus is on its route.
“By adding GPS to buses and expanding monitoring services to parents, we are providing more accountability of ridership,” said Jay McCarraher, Transportation Director. “Offering Here Come the Bus app to the families in our school district is a positive upgrade and available at no charge.”
Here Comes the Bus app shows real-time location of a student’s bus on a map, gives scheduled and actual arrival times at home and school for bus routes and provides push and email notifications when the bus is near. For example, if a bus number changes, parents are notified, or whenever the bus is near the bus stop, parents are notified.
The easy-to-use app is available on a smartphone, tablet, or personal computer. To complete the download and registration process, parents enter the information provided by the school administrative office and enter their student’s name and ID number.
“At the Transportation Department, we take responsibility for each of our bus riders and want to ensure that every ride is safe and accounted for,” McCarraher said.
Within the first week of school, bus ridership increased to 5,200 students, up from last year’s count of 4,500. Some 94 school buses cover 122 routes throughout the county, and the entire fleet is enabled to utilize the Here Comes the Bus app.