On February 18, the Springfield Public Schools (SPS) district launched an app called WheresTheBus. This app allows parents and students to view accurate bus pickup and drop-off times from their mobile devices.
The district has been working on this for months and started working with a company a year ago to launch the app. Before it launched, the district wanted to test the app by loading all the buses onto the system. Riders were asked to scan or enter a code when they entered or exited the bus to allow connection to the WheresTheBus app. The experiment went well, so the district launched the app for everyone to use.
The WheresTheBus app is similar to Life360 for buses at pickup and drop-off times. It allows users to see the live location and arrival times. The app notifies parents when their students scan themselves on or off the bus.
Along with providing security and assurance for parents with children who use the bus for transportation, it also gives a significant safety boost to the roughly 8,000 students in the SPS district who ride the bus. It provides a live roster of the students on and off the bus at any given time, increasing the ability for the district to react appropriately in an emergency.
The implementation of the WheresTheBus app also provides benefits to the district in three major ways, including allowing them to account for students in an emergency, ensuring that they have accurate student counts for state funding, and helping them to better understand route utilization so they can adjust routes if needed.
It also benefits schools, bus drivers, and the transportation department. The app gives schools access to bus locations and ETAs in real time. Additionally, it provides drivers with a tool to help them manage their rosters and alerts them if a student is on the wrong bus or trying to get off at the wrong stop. WheresTheBus also provides the transportation department with better data to make more informed decisions about routes using real-time GPS and routing information. Students could also use the app alongside parents to see the ETA and prepare for when to start waiting for the bus.
According to Keith Adams, the SPS transportation director, the process for students to get on and off the bus has been slightly modified.
“Before we launched WheresTheBus, students would board the bus, and the driver would locate each student’s name on a printed paper roster to confirm they were registered to ride that specific bus. This process took time and could be challenging, especially at the start of the year when rosters changed frequently,” Adams said.
Now, there is a mandatory process for all bus riders to check onto their bus, which may be completed in three different ways.
The first way to check in is by scanning the barcode on IDs for high schoolers. Children in eighth grade or below were given a key tag with a QR code. The second way is typing in the student ID on a keypad on the bus. The third and final way is driver-assisted check-in, which includes the driver manually checking students in on the tablet.
However, manual check-in is viewed as a back-up option, and the district would prefer for all students to either enter their ID or scan their barcode.
There are four significant ways that the app improves safety for those who ride the bus. The first way is that in the case of an emergency, the district can see exactly who is on the bus at that moment, which would help emergency responders and staff account for every student, even if the driver is unable to provide that information.
The second way safety is improved is because scan data is sent to the dispatch team within seconds of using cellular service. The app also prevents students from getting on the wrong bus or getting off at the wrong stop since the driver’s tablet alerts them if something does not match the student’s assigned route. Another way it increases safety is that if an accident happens, the district knows exactly which parents to contact because they know which students were on the bus.
Every 15 seconds, the location of the bus updates on the WheresTheBus app and shows how many minutes and miles the bus is from the household bus stop. Any member of the bus-riding household can access this information.
Parents can sign up for the app at WheresTheBus.com where all you need is your student’s birth date and student ID number. If they are already a registered bus rider, it will automatically find the correct bus and log in.
The new WheresTheBus app will have many positive effects on the district, schools, parents, and students.
