in Texas. “It is also building a [better] relationship between the transporta- tion department and the parents, because the parents have a better idea of what’s going on.” Midlothian has 70 buses that are equipped with the SMART tag Parent
Portal app, which is compatible with the Versatrans Routing System from Tyler Technologies. The district has 9,400 students in the 110-square mile area south of Dallas/Fort Worth. “We call it student ridership or student accountability. It is not a track- ing system,” he stressed. “Our parents balked at the idea of their children being tracked. We assured them that the school doesn’t know where the student goes after they get off the bus.” The Parent Portal app has increased accuracy and efficiency. At any
time, Pelletier said he has information at the touch of a button, such as re- cently when the program told him that 143 of the 1,092 students who ride the district’s 42 buses weren’t wearing their student ID badges. The driver can manually add them or subtract students from the onboard count if they don’t use a badge. State head counts and ridership information are more accurate than relying on a driver to tally students boarding the bus. Parent Portal is a free app for parents to download. A message is sent
when the bus is 10 to 15 minutes out from a stop. If there is a problem with the bus, or the driver must detour after the message is sent, a phone call is initiated. “Despite not operating in real time yet, the system had all of the (other)
features that I wanted,” Pelletier said. “All my reports are done for me. If a bus is running late, I can notify those parents, even if they aren’t signed up for Parent Portal, because their email has been pulled in from the school’s data base.” He explained that his department can send a mass email to the parents of
specific vehicles, which comes in handy if there has been a crash. “We can notify the parents and tell them that their child is fine, and ask them to please not go to the scene,” he added. “There are fewer phone calls asking where the bus is, because there is also a bus locator that parents can turn on with their personal login.” In Michigan, the integration of Zonar GPS with the SafeStop app helps
hundreds of families in the Huron Valley School District stay informed about their children’s bus rides. The district already had GPS on its fleet, which covers 100 square miles of rural territory, including gravel roads. Then there are the challenging weather conditions of Michigan winters. Of the 9,000 students who are enrolled, about half are bus riders. District spokeswoman Kim Root said Huron Valley is pleased with the ac- ceptance of the free app. “In two weeks, we had over 600 families sign up,” she noted. “The local news did a story on it, which really got the ball rolling. Plus, we are continuing to let our families know about SafeStop, by spread- ing the word on our list serve and social media channels. The families that have it are very happy to have peace of mind for their child’s bus ride.” She called SafeStop “a tremendous tool” that allows the district to send
specialized messages if a bus is late, due to weather, traffic conditions or other issues. “Communicating in real time has cut down significantly on phone calls to the transportation office, allowing our staff to attend to other duties,” she added. “There were a few glitches, such as the GPS showing one bus 30-miles away, but the SafeStop team resolved those problems quickly.”
Smallville Independent School District *011068*
CLARK KENT
SMART tag is the premier student ridership
management solution. Our rugged driver tablet and use of RFID cards help ensure students get on the right bus, get off at the right stop and are not left on the bus. Our state-of-the-art solution provides many features including:
• Patented Guardian Release • Pre/Post-trip Inspections • Reimbursement reports including Special Education and State Headcount Reports
• Real-time fleet and student visibility through our secure web portals for transportation, campuses, and parents
• Messaging system for driver and parent communication
Give us a call to find out all that SMART tag can do for you!
“SMART tag truly is a magnificent leap in student transportation… the tablet does so much it's actually unbelievable.”
Josh Rice
Dir. of Transportation New Caney ISD, TX
smart-tag.net 512.686.2360
sales@smart-tag.net
www.stnonline.com 21
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