L
ast September, the Bentonville Pub- lic Schools in Arkansas was rocked when kindergartner Charles Car- penter went missing and was later
found on a school bus, where he’d spent several hours alone. The boy’s parents filed a lawsuit the following month naming the district, superin- tendent, school board, transportation director, and route system specialist. According to published reports, Charles’ mother complained during a subsequent school board meeting that her son was found dehy- drated, thirsty, sweaty and having urinated on himself. News reports relayed via the complaint that the boy was taken to an emergency room, where he showed signs of dehydration and bubbles in his urine. The complaint also states that Charles suffered psychological effects and now distrusts adults and refuses to ride the school bus. His parents now transport him to and from school. As it turns out, Charles was left on the bus when a substitute driver failed to follow a proce-
dure to activate a child reminder system at the rear of the bus, to indicate that the driver had checked the bus for any remaining students. “I don’t have the words to articulate just
how all-around heartbreaking that was for the district, the driver and the student’s family,” commented Bentonville spokesperson Leslee Wright. “Definitely a lot of tears were shed over that one.” As a result of a parental uprising on school bus safety, Wright confirmed a litany of mea- sures initiated by the district to address the issue, including placing Child Checkmate Sys- tems in all buses, doubling up on safety checks, installing cameras on each bus, and notifying parents by 10 a.m. if their child is unaccounted for. A key piece of the improvement, Wright said, is the addition of Bus Compass, a mobile application designed to send parents real-time alerts via their smartphones when their student gets on and off a bus. Wright added parents can also track the bus and see if their children are on board. Additional benefits of Bus Compass, developed
by student transportation technology company Transportant, is an onboard sensor that detects when a child is still on board and a live audio/ video feed so school administrators can see what is happening on the bus in real time. Tablets are also part of the system for drivers. “When a child swipes their ID card, the driver sees the child’s information and an image of the child,” Wright said. “When the driver approaches a stop, the driver also sees the images of students who should be boarding or exiting the bus.” Wright called the system amazing. “The greatest challenge we’ve encountered
is with our younger students keeping up with their badges,” she said. “But parents have been wonderful about attaching their badges to back- packs. We encourage that, so the kids are not taking them on and off all the time.” Wright pointed out that the ID badges are
A Bentonville Public Schools student in Arkansas scans onto the bus. The school district implemented student ridership tracking in response to another student being left behind and alone after a route.
available with breakaway lanyards, but attaching them to backpacks for the younger students is encouraged.
East Coast Tracking Meanwhile, similar drama was unfolding in
Connecticut, where Mansfield Public Schools Continued on pg. 36 ➥
30 School Transportation News • MARCH 2023
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