Mayor Eric Adams and city Schools Chancellor David C. Banks announced the new citywide app, NYC School Bus App, last week. It will help give peace of mind to families with students who ride yellow buses to and from school. Approximately 150,000 students take a yellow school bus across the five boroughs.
"From the start, our administration has set a new standard for how government uses technology to serve hard-working families," said Adams. "New York families are busy all day long, and the NYC School Bus App will make their lives a little easier by helping them manage pick-ups and drop-offs right from their home computers or smartphones, while giving them additional comfort as they follow the bus route's their young children take on their way to and from school."
The app, which was developed in collaboration with Via, is a partnership between bus drivers, families and schools.
Work began on this project in 2019, after the New York City Council voted unanimously to approve a package of bills — the Student Transportation Oversight Package (STOP) — aimed to increase transparency around the Department of Education's (DOE) Office of Pupil Transportation, increase oversight over bus activity and increase efficiency in school bus services.
It required the installation and use of automated vehicle location equipment on school buses. Along with the GPS tracking device, the bill also allows parents and guardians to have access to the real-time location of their child's school bus when it's in use.
The project was paused in 2020 due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic — though efforts continued in the 2020-2021 school year with a small-scale testing of systems.
ABOUT THE APP
For families to use the app, the assigned route driver must be subscribed to the platform. Subscriptions citywide are more than 75%, according to the city.
If a specific route isn't available to be tracked during a student's designated busing hours, parents can reach out to their school bus company to let them know that their driver is not subscribed and request that the driver sign up.
The goal of this initiative is to ensure that children have effective and efficient transportation, while also helping the city to improve bus operations. It will make it easy for families to verify a student's location when they are riding the school bus and will provide near real-time pickup and drop-off times.
"Every eligible student has a right to transportation service that truly serves them. I'm thrilled to be launching this system for families across the city and to provide peace of mind to parents as they send their babies off to school each day," said Banks. "I'm thankful to our partners in the City Council who helped advocate for this tool for our school communities, and for our bus vendors and drivers for working in partnership with us to roll this out for families."
HOW TO TRACK YOUR CHILD'S SCHOOL BUS
The NYC School Bus App is available for families of students who receive bus transportation from the New York City DOE.
Here's what you need to do to access the platform.
1. Families will first need access to their New York City Schools Account (NYCSA) and have their student's ID number.
If families don't have an NYCSA account, they can learn how to get started online or by contacting their school. You can contact your child's school for their student ID number. Once you have this number, you're ready to begin.
2. Once you have an NYCSA account, download the NYC School Bus App from the Apple and Google Play stores. You'll know if it's the correct app if it was created by Via Transportation Inc. and the icon has a yellow school bus with NYC Department of Education in writing.
3. Log in to the app with your NYCSA account.
4. Select the child you'd like to track.
5. Follow your child's bus. The app will now show the real-time location of the bus and provide notifications about their child(ren) boarding and exiting the bus. If your child's bus does not appear, the driver has not yet logged in to the app.
As feedback is provided for the app, the DOE will make updates and add new features. That would include the expected arrival time of the school bus, information about the time and location where the child is getting on and off the bus, and notifications about delays.
THREE PHASES
There are three phases to this new initiative.
The first phase focuses on training bus drivers and school bus companies in appropriate practices and use of the Via technology. It supports consistent login to the Driver App and adherence to assigned routes, setting the foundation for successful tracking of rider status in later stages.
The second phase is setting up the School Administrative Console, which allows schools to view the location of school buses serving their school on a single screen. Once the majority of school bus drivers and vendors adopt the Driver App, the NYC School Bus App and School Administrative Console, it will begin to report the location of buses.
The third and final phase involves ridership tracking, which allows families to get notifications when their child boards and exits the school bus. This project phase includes passes for students to scan, the ability for students to have their own account in the NYC School Bus App.
For more information about the school bus app, visit the DOE's website at schools.nyc.gov.
©2024 Staten Island Advance, N.Y. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
