SPECIAL REPORT Johnson continued saying the technology not only
supports the parents but also increases driver safety and route efficiency, “which in turn would improve the on- time network and driver retention/recruitment.” Lexie Moras, a parent in Maine who uses Tyler’s My
Ride K-12 app, summed up her own experience. “The additional peace of mind it provides was definitely worth the few minutes of time for set-up, and the app is incredibly easy to navigate,” said Moras, who also works in Tyler’s property assessment and tax records group. “As a parent, I am a proponent of anything that provides additional peace of mind.” While student ridership verification apps appear to be a win-win situation, Lam Nguyen-Bull, a consultant at Edulog, which offers its Parent Portal to provide bus information, advises districts to discuss thoroughly and be fully aware of the necessary costs, people power and security requirements when choosing an app. “First, I’d want to understand what the district’s objec-
tives are. What are the positive outcomes they expect from an investment of this type?” she noted. “And then, I’d want them to have thought about the costs/invest- ment required beyond the initial investment of dollars. Often, you’re talking about creating whole new activities that have-to-have ongoing person-power applied to
RELI
keep them running.” She offered that districts should look at possible sce-
narios and make sure that the app has the capability to keep up with the sometimes constantly changing bus routes and that parents can see those changes. “Theoretically, parents will no longer have to call the
district transportation office to find out where their kids are or if they go on a bus,” she continued. “But then new things will crop up. If a kid is normally assigned to bus 101, but one day, bus 101 is out of service and the kid needs to ride bus 204, is the district equipped to notify parents following bus 101 that they need to be looking at/following bus 204 that day?” Zonar’s Ammon suggested that the app a district chooses “should have a multitude of features that makes the parent experience simple and seamless,” he said. “This starts with ensuring that the process for identify- ing your child’s route is simple, easy to sign up for and most importantly secure.” Nguyen-Bull also noted data security concerns. “Schools have dedicated lots of attention to this issue, and we designed our parent app to be able to accom- modate whether both parents (and other caregivers) are allowed to receive/retrieve information from the app about their students and to what extent,” she said. ●
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