SPECIAL REPORT


Fulfilling Appetites


Simply offering a school bus or student tracking app isn’t enough to satiate hungry parents eager to track their children’s buses. Student transporters need to be proactive with communication, education to ensure usage


Written By Ryan Gray | ryan@stnonline.com


Drew VanFossen, the operations manager for Helena Public Schools in Montana, checks routes on the district’s school bus app for parents.


W


hen Helena Public Schools first piloted its school bus location app three years ago, Tom Cohn quickly realized that the success of the project would not solely


rest on the effectiveness of the technology. “Twenty-five percent of parents used the app at the


get-go,” recalled Cohn, who retires in June after serving as the Montana school district’s transportation manager for more than two decades. “We wanted all parents using


18 School Transportation News • APRIL 2022


it. We thought that was a really good deal … parents are going to eat this up.” But they didn’t. Why the disconnect? The transportation department sent a survey that


revealed all but 10 parents had smartphones, so that couldn’t be the culprit. What Cohn and his staff soon learned was that simply having an app and advertising it is different than demonstrating it and proactively solic- iting download, even when offering parents the ability


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